


Submerged threads

by Shadowdianne



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, No mentions of OQ, Slightly canon-divergence, no mentions of CS, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-18 00:31:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4685429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/Shadowdianne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ink that decides fate… or fate already written in another kind of ink? Captain Mills exchanged her freedom for safety back on a particular time where everything seemed to be lost going against a decision that would have turned her into the most famous Queen of all the Enchanted Forest. Tied to the Dark One in an unbreakable bond she was unaware that even if threads are severed, changed and repainted there are tales that will always appear no matter what…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Submerged Threads](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4661277) by [napfreak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/napfreak/pseuds/napfreak). 



> I want to dedicate the work to thegardensofthemoon and king-prom. The first one because she kept nagging me with this idea until I finally took it, the second one because she heard my ramblings and actually helped me with the way to work with my idea and making me realize the kind of story I wanted to write.  
> And thank you also to my cheerleader (queenofallswans) and the artist (napfreak) that took my work ^^  
> Notes: The world described here although it has elements of the 15th century such as details of the ships and how they worked is firmly settled on the medieval era that the series show us. (More or less of course) It’s also an au with a mix of canon divergence so be ready to a few canon things being threw on the mix (No CS or OQ though)

_Preface_

_The man who had been an author opened his eyes as he tried to recognize where he was. He had been imprisoned a mere hours before and his back felt stiff when he tried to straighten it._

_His surroundings were covered in darkness although the torches scattered all over what looked to be walls made out of barely worked stone pointed at a closed door that he looked for a second; too curious of what was at the other side to even feel scared._

_He had been an author after all; his gift was the art of telling stories, of believing words and turning them into reality. Deciding that whatever that was at the other side of the door could help him to discover where he was now he nodded and inhaled deeply taking a step forwards towards the closed doors._

_His steps echoed on what he now recognized as some kind of cave deeply and profusely decorated, the work didn’t look like human-created although that was what it had looked like the first time he had opened his eyes and with dreed already starting to grow inside of him he finally stood as tall as he was in front of the decorated doors that cracked a little under his gaze, almost buzzling with what looked like a magic he had never saw before._

_“Are you going to enter?” He heard, the words moving and floating away in the dark air of the cave, filled already with the smoke of the torches and what was probably dust._

_“Yes?” He answered; the word more like a question than an actual answer but as minutes passed and the voice didn’t speak again he bit his bottom lip once and, touching the door with his left hand, pushed what looked to be a quite heavy door until he heard a crack that signaled the opening of the door’s frame._

_The room at the other side was barely illuminated and the torches that not so long ago had looked menacing danced merrily at his back for a second as he walked inside the room, the door closing tightly behind him with a loud “thud” that made him jump and look behind his shoulder, the source of light now barely inexistent._

_“I know who are you” The same voice than before said, this time holding a trace of amusement that made the weak man swallow twice. He obviously was on a realm with magic and although he had written about almost too many realms he didn’t recognize where or what kind of creature was with him. “I, however, doubt that you know who I am”_

_“I…” The Author stammered the room filling slowly with purple and blue lights that changed and moved under his eyes almost as if they were liquid light. “You are…”_

_“Some people call me Merlin” The creature said, the lights swirling and gyrating in front of the lanky man until they were a fire that seemed to float in the middle of the room, its light caressing the man’s face as he swallowed nervously and nodded. His hands were already searching for his quill and his parchment but once he realized that he hadn’t have them with him anymore he let his hands rest limply at his sides, a passing look of regret swirling inside his pupils for a second as he tried to find something to say._

_“They are searching for you” He finally said, his mind going already to the ones that were probably on the realm without magic, a realm that probably existed outside the place like everything else did._

_“I know” The fire answered, a deep sound lacing its words and, for a second, the author thought that the creature looked even pleased with himself. “They want to free the one that had been designated as the savior”_

_“Yes” The man answered, nodding wildly at the bouncing fire; he didn’t have any remorse for what he had done; he had wanted to be free, happy. Something that the quill hadn’t given him even after what the Apprentice had promised him. He had done what he had needed to do but considering what had transpired a few hours before he bowed slightly under the shadows that the fire created, his tongue licking his bottom lip as he tried to find the correct words in that moment. “They want to change the story”_

_Silence covered the place for a second as the fire cracked and grew, the lights changing from purple to blue and back. As the author started to look for something that could be used as a weapon the voice spoke again, the deep murmur now transformed into a much younger voice that lingered on the shadows for a second before disappearing completely._

_“They can’t change the story, that’s something you never understood”_

_The man that had been known as the Author blinked stupidly for a second, he had been persecuted because of what had been considered a ripple in the story; authors couldn’t change the story, they needed to write the story as it happened. His crimes had been because of what he had wanted and had finally created; a world that wasn’t real, a world where the ones that lived in it were nothing else but mere creatures he used as he desired._

_“But… the quill…” He muttered, not being able to say a single word as the fire crackled patiently behind him._

_“The quill is enchanted to be sure that nothing major happens” The fire explained softly, his voice returning to be the deep murmur that had surrounded the man the first time he had spoken. “But there are things than even I can’t change”_

_“Like the savior” The man whispered._

_“Exactly” The fire conceded as the man in front of him paced nervously, his mind already filled with the hundreds of threads he had severed, rewritten or simply forgotten on the back of his head as he had tried to achieve his own happiness._

_“That means that everything that I did, the decisions Rumplestiskin made meant nothing, the story was already prewritten”_

_His words escaped his lips and as soon as they echoed on the room he trembled, the thought that the fire could kill him in a second filling his mind._

_However, the creature didn’t react to that and just crackled for a few more seconds before speaking again._

_“I wouldn’t say that” He finally muttered “Although there are things, threads, stories, that don’t matter how many times you try to change them, they will always return to their original path. Like the savior and the one you have called the evil queen”_

_“That’s impossible” The author protested “They are from two different worlds, they couldn’t have met without the curse, the curse was a decision that I helped to create.”_

_Something close to a snort was heard from the fire and the man recoiled, fear filling his mind once again._

_“What if, author, the decision you say that you helped to create didn’t even exist in the first place? What if the one you made the Evil Queen existed as a different woman, under a different name?”_


	2. Deep water

Dark clouds covered the sky when the Captain felt the summoning deep on her veins. They had berthed on one of the shadiest places in the entire Midas kingdom a few nights before and she was in the middle of her shift when she felt the deep murmur of magic calling for her.

The captain sighed and closed her dark eyes for a second before turning; she didn’t exactly need to take shifts on her ship but she preferred the quietness of the night than anything else. Caressing her full bottom lip with her right thumb she nodded quietly to herself.

The old decks of the village emanate a putrid odor that followed the woman when she walked towards the interior of the ship. The ship’s deck was empty and only a few lights here and there were The Captain’s only companions as she kept feeling the calling inside her body. She had long ago become accustomed with the nagging feeling inside her chest whenever the Dark One called for her but she still made a face when she felt the magic bubbling inside her chest like impatient waves.

The woman sighed as she looked at her right hand were dozens of scars should have been there by now. However, the skin was as smooth as ever and for a second she considered not answering the Dark One’s call.

Not that she could though, she had made a deal with the shady man in some place in some year that was starting to become fuzzy on her mind. She had sworn to protect his reign from the ones who tried to trespass it, the meanings of that clear as crystalline water. The price for that was her liberty but she, at least, had the chance to be and see whatever she pleased instead of being attached to a destiny that wasn’t hers and hadn’t been as long as her mother had started to decide for her.

Biting her bottom lip she grabbed the bell jar that hung from one of the cords that kept everything tied up during the night and moved it, the light bouncing and receiving a nod from her second from the other side of the ship; the wolfish features of the man looking even more pronounced for a moment.

The signal was clear and the meaning even more; They were going to apparate.

Finally opening the door that led to her cabin back from the forecastle, she grabbed the red and black dress coat she normally wore to combat. Putting it slowly she also grabbed a tiny blade that were hanging from the back of the door and approached the globe that was presiding the quarters. When she had made the deal and had foolishly asked to the dark one how he had planned to make her travel back to his land in time to save him (although the two of them knew that that wasn’t exactly necessary) the imp had smiled before showing the globe she now had between her hands “Just a drop of blood and the globe will be activated dearie” The man had said and although a little bit skeptical Regina had grabbed the object and fled, not sure if what the man had told her was the complete truth or just another game.

It had turned out that it had it so now, as she eyed the sharp blade she hold on her right hand, she almost wanted to sigh on pure defeat. She was starting to get older for all of that.

“Not that I ever be” A voice whispered inside of her as she finally made the cut and looked as the first drop of blood touched the surface of the globe. A soft purple glow was already covering her when the ship started to spin and by the time she felt the wooden planks under her feet finally settling on the new sea they were in the wound was already healed.

Turning and buttoning up the dress coat she closed the door and grabbed the handle of her sword, the wide blade still glowing softly under the moonlight that shone dimly on the dark one’s reign, making the deep waters of the man’s shore shimmer like thousands of tiny diamonds.

“This time we are too close to the mist” Her second whispered quietly as she finally exited the deck, his eyes glowing slightly on the night.

Graham had been taken care by wolves almost all of her life so when he had finally transformed into one the first night after his twenty first birthday it hadn’t exactly been a surprise for anyone. He normally looked completely human but at night his features changed, making Regina think about the beast he could perfectly turn into instead of the man she knew.

“You are right” She confirmed as she eyed the mist that worked as a preventive barrier between the other reigns through a complicated system of spells and curses. She had read a lot about the whole process, knowing that the only thing that had helped against the dark one was knowledge. Sometimes it was strange to know that her mother’s words were still the little things that helped her in order to remain alive.

Sighing and trying to see something at the other side of the mist she heard her men starting to exit to the main deck, each one of them already working on the cannons.

“Don’t move until you hear my signal” She mumbled, tasting the bittersweet flavor of adrenaline and remorse on her tongue; she didn’t like killing or inflicting pain to the ones that hadn’t done anything to her. But her story preceded her and so she had become accustomed to do what was expected because of who she was. Her men nodded and scrutinize the sea like her, waiting for a ship to emerge from the mist, mist that surrounded them also.

The mist wasn’t only a preventive measure but also an attacking spell that surrounded the entire border of the dark one’s waters. In the fog the senses were altered to the point that water and sea foam could be transformed into monsters and nightmares thanks to fear and apprehension. The Captain knew well that particular effect of the fog and even if she was already expecting the fog to start working with her like everyone else she felt her body tense up when she saw the silhouette of a kraken moving towards her in the middle of the magical mist. The order of attacking what was a figment of her imagination died on her lips, which she licked, when Graham growled at her side, preventing her for doing a mistake.

The man was also looking at the darkness although thanks to his particular acute senses it was more difficult for him to fall in the trap; magic couldn’t make something emit odor and so the monsters weren’t for him more than a bunch of curses and spells in human and inhuman form. He, however, growled when, a few meters at their right, a huge shadow started to approach them. Even with the mist the shadow was large and it didn’t look exactly like a warship so when he finally managed to see the lights that illuminated the ship at the other side of the fog he turned and looked at Regina. The woman was already grabbing the helm with strong hands, her own eyes glued on the ship’s silhouette as she tried to elucidate what kind of ship she was seeing in front of her.

“Captain” He whispered, making the brunette woman turn and nod softly towards him once.

“It looks like a freighter” She mumbled “But the merchant lines are quite far from here”

Graham nodded, the crew already trembling with excitement. They weren’t bad men but the captain knew that at least half of them had a particular idea about what it was to be a pirate and the money they would be able to obtain wasn’t a meagre thing either. Narrowing her eyes and trying to see something that would help her to see from where reigns the ship had sailed she realized that the ship looked like it was approaching their own.

“They had seen us” She muttered under her breath eliciting a growl and a nod from Graham.

Soon enough the ship was visible, the wood of the deck cracking under the weight of the rigs. In the fog that covered both ships the colors were darkened and barely visible but the emblem that was sewed on the sails was clear enough for Regina to see the blues and whites of the White kingdom; one of the northeast reigns.

“How in the seven hells…” Graham muttered, his right hand clenching his sword and Regina could hear a growl on the back of his throat. Graham, like her, didn’t have good memories of that particular kingdom but, even if their own story was complicated with the rulers of the reign it was strange that a ship of that particular place was on the dark one’s waters.

Narrowing her eyes and leaving the helm she approached the deck, her lips curling in a smirk when she saw the sailors of the other ship trying to look menacingly back at her, whispers were brought in the air and she could hear her own name and her reputation being told and passed along at the other side of the fog.

Judging by the fear and the lack of cannons or even swords Regina realized that they were probably the merchants she had thought they were, and so, she considered for a second why they were even there, in dark one’s water when it was known how the man treated the ones who tried to cross his borders. Merchants or not.

For a second she considered the idea of letting them go; they weren’t a problem and the tales they could told about the magical fog would be a more efficient way to prevent anyone of trying to cross said magical mist instead of just destroying them. But, as she felt the magic tingling all over her body, she also knew that she couldn’t do a thing, even if she wanted. With a sigh and a nod that was lost on the night, she turned and looked at her own men, all of them already looking at her from the deck below her.

“You know the rules” It was everything she needed to say, the night was soon covered with the odors of powder and smoke and the air filled with the screams of terror that a few sailors of the white kingdom emitted.

To be fair none of the merchant men tried to escape at first and even one or two tried to repel the quick attack of Regina’s men. It was also a lost battle from the very first second and that was obvious even more after the first men of the Captain managed to win the gun deck. However, even if her men laughed and chanted as they worked the woman, didn’t take part in the battle, her dark eyes moving back and forth from her place of the forecastle as she saw the other ship starting to sink. Soon enough the battle cries died down and the waves breaking against the planks of what it had been a powerful ship was the only thing that could be heard on the fog, which had thickened during the battle.

The wind blew on the Dark One's sea and Regina Mills smirked once the dust, sea water and gunpowder settled once again. The air brought the smell of battle and smoke from the sad remains of the ship that had tried to cross the closed borders of the kingdom. Now, however, the poor four planks that stubbornly refused to sink were abandoned, the crew swimming as fast as they could towards a land that Regina knew was even more infested of monsters that the sea itself.

Looking at her second and nodding she walked away from the handle and descended the three stairs that directed the deck from the forecastle. Once in the deck she smiled indulgently at her men when they laughed and insulted to the few crew members of the other ship that still remained near them. Squinting her eyes she tried to get a better view of the emblazonment that had been on the other sails' ship until minutes before. With a hum she recognized the cot d'arms of the once powerful white kingdom. She hadn’t been mistaken; it looked like the White Kingdom was trying to re-start some way of communicating with the southern kingdoms without crossing the lands of the Dark One reign. It was quite strange to see a ship from the northern part of the Enchanted Forest so close to the reign of the Dark One but Regina had long ago became wary of politics and she shook her head, trying to remove the memories that threatened to surface.

"Any survivors that are still near?" She asked and didn't listen to the few members of the crew that growled. She didn't necessarily like their thirst for blood but were good sailors and, as far as she was concerned, that was everything that mattered. She didn't like killing though, which had been the only thing that the Dark One had been unable to take from her and as she looked at the swimming men in front of her she hummed once again, apparently she had managed to not take any lives from the now sinking ship.

She knew that her apparent justice wasn’t exactly fair; she refused to take any lives from the ones that she needed to repel but she also didn’t help them once she sunk their ships, their fates already written when they finally managed to arrive to the dark one’s beaches. It was a wicked deal but a deal nonetheless and at least that men could try to survive and cross the infested lands without being killed by the monsters and curses that already covered them.

She was brought back from her reverie by one of the youngest members of the crew; Tim, whose pimpled face always made Regina smile a little more indulgently at him. He was a good boy and he would be a better sailor and it was precisely his excited face and voice the ones that made Regina nod in appraisal at him as she heard his words. “There is still movement on the remains of the ballast”

The ship was a big one, something that she had also seen the first time Graham had pointed that to her, it had three masts and the deck looked wide and strong enough to being made by dwarfs.

Unable to see what Tim had pointed to her she grabbed the telescope and looked through it, the blowing wind parting the fog a little under her searching eyes. There, in the middle of the dark and cold waters, a figure was moving to the distant shore of the dark kingdom. The balsa, that looked poorly made, had been what Tim had seen and as Regina tried to see how many sailors were in the balsa a wave threatened to sink the planks and the ones above it. Whereas the battle had been brief the waves were making the balsa move way faster than Regina's ship and so she grumbled, knowing that she needed to let whoever was in that balsa went like the rest of the crew members she had already let go.

But, she sighed, mentally calculating the amount of miles away that the balsa was from the shoreline and the closeness of midnight, once the sun was fully settled monsters and mermaids would pullulate the border, killing everything that wasn't a monster itself. Whoever that was trying to be reunited with the rest of the former crew had lost a precious time with the balsa. They were already condemned.

And Regina Mills, Queen of the Dark Seas had never let anyone die in such conditions. Not now, not ever.

With a dramatic turn she ordered her second to move the ship and rescue whoever that was on the balsa, quieting the few murmurs that that arose with a single glance and the glint of her enchanted sword.

* * *

 

_The author arched his brows as the fire’s voice died down, images still strong in front of him as he gulped down his obvious incredulity._

_“Why aren’t you the author?” He demanded, his voice breaking a little as his lips curled in mockery “You really are good telling stories”_

_The fire cracked warningly but the man didn’t bulge, he had already decided that although the fire could in fact kill him it didn’t look dangerous or menacing so as far as he was concerned he was going to just wait until something happened._

_Not that he knew where he was but he wanted to also wait for that particular information to be shared by the powerful being in front of him._

_“What I’m telling you isn’t a story but a different tale, a thread that didn’t happened but could have” The fire explained as the images that it had been sharing with the ex- author appeared once again between the man and itself. The waters of the dark one’s reign shone menacingly as it spoke, the magic making them almost too real for the man’s liking. “Listen and learn”_

* * *

 

The balsa was empty except for one woman, her blonde tresses even visible under the poor light of the bell jar that still hung from the ship’s rigs. A few men hollered as Graham and Laurent(the lookout) tried to help her from the ship.

Regina frowned when the blonde’s face was visible, her deep, green pupils shining under the lights feral as she was brought to the ship’s deck. Although she smelt of saltpeter like the rest of them the way her face was raised and the manner her chin didn’t even tremble when the brunette stared at her made an old memory appear on the surface of her brain. Like a log that has spent too much time on the water.

The blonde wore the typical clothes a sailor would do and although they were practically in tatters and drenched she still wore them with a particular grace- or lack of it- that made Regina almost impossible not to stare. The whiteness of the skin, slightly burn here and there but intact in most places, talked about a woman who hadn’t need to work for years and the captain didn’t need anything else to finally realize who she was looking at.

Emma de White, heir of the white Kingdom.

She had long ago put a feet on the reign that had been her home for the most part of her young life but she still had eyes and ears on the place. Even as much as she despised the rulers of that particular reign and although her story with the crown was anything else but complicated she tried to know almost everything that she needed to know. Emma de White for example, had been a particular life she had been listening intently since the first time she heard about her.

The tales about her beauty weren’t a lie although the way those emerald pupils shone with interest and just a hint of stubbornness wasn’t exactly something that any troubadour or painter could have captured on their tales about her.

Although, even if her presence was interesting, the crew was already growing impatient and Regina walked the few steps that she had between the other woman and herself sizing her up and realizing with not exactly disgust that the blonde was a few inches taller than her.

“Captain Mills” The blonde’s voice had the same strange mixture of beauty and roughness that made the brunette’s brows arch in amusement.

“You know who I am?” The brunette heard herself asking, her lips parting in a satisfied smile that disappeared almost as quickly as it had curled her lips. She couldn’t trust the woman in front of her and she needed also to make the blonde tell her everything about the now disappeared ship in which she had been in a mere hours before.

The blonde nodded quickly as she looked at her, almost as if she was fascinated by the simple fact of being in front of her. A few men snickered and mumbled behind the brunette’s back but a single glance from Graham made them silent once again as Regina hummed. Her reputation was something she had worked on as the years had passed by. Nothing else could protect her but her reputation, the reputation of a pirate, of a woman who could do everything in order to gain what she wanted. So far it had worked and as she eyed the green eyes of the one she was sure was the heir of the white kingdom she realized that she actually could negotiate with her instead of just letting her go.

To be realistic she also knew that her looks, short hair and poised stance, wasn’t exactly something someone like the heir of the white kingdom was accustomed to.

“Come with me” She demanded as she snapped the fingers of her right hand, the dress coat’s tail parting enough to let the moonlight shimmer against her sword. The command was answered by two of her men who took a step towards the blonde and didn’t let her go when she tried to turn.

The short walk to Regina’s quarters were made in silence, the sounds of the sea and the brunette’s crew already going back to their normal jobs the only thing that filled the air. The magic, albeit powerful, usually needed a few hours to recharge so whenever they needed to apparate the hours after the spell were the most vulnerable ones for them and so they needed to be sure that the ship was completely equipped and ready just in case.

Once the door to her quarters was open and the blonde left to her devices in the middle of the room, Regina said the two men that she wasn’t going to need them anymore and walked towards the globe with a pensive look on her eyes. She could see the blonde looking at the place with curiosity from the corner of her eyes, something that made her smile for a second time.

The place was indeed quite interesting, filled with the different artifacts the brunette woman had been acquiring over the years as a pirate. Here and there old magic spells, that barely could hold themselves together anymore, shimmered and cracked deeply intertwined with the objects, blades and toys that littered the place in what seemed to be a complete and pure chaos that only Regina knew the order of. Even her bed was covered with the figures and tokens she had either bought or collected along the years.

“Are you going to kill me?”

The question, albeit one that Regina had heard it quite a few times, hold an interesting tone that made the brunette turn and look directly at the blonde whose green eyes were now looking back at her with a mix of interest, curiosity and animosity that made the brunette want to laugh. The blonde was arrogant, just like her grandfather, although she wasn’t exactly bothering her.

“First I would want to know why the heir of the white kingdom is traveling with some merchants that probably by now are already the dinner of a manticore”

Her words were whispered albeit thanks to the way the cabin had been built they echoed for a second as they settled in, like water after a storm. Although Regina didn’t exactly know good enough the woman in front of her the way the blonde’s face paled even more as she bit her bottom lip nervously was enough to spike her curiosity. A princess, or a member of any royal family for that matter, always traveled with at least five to six men and since the White Kingdom wasn’t battling against any other reign as far as Regina knew, the fact that the other woman had been traveling in a normal ship instead of one with not only the royal blazon but also with the appropriate symbols of being from the royal navy also was slightly suspicious.

The blonde clenched her fists and for a second Regina’s brown eyes allowed themselves to fest on the strength that particular gesture showed on the way the arms and wrists of the younger woman moved and trembled, muscles tensing below the pale skin. It was the princess voice the one who woke her from her reverie and the pirate woman almost scoffed at her own stupidity “How did you know?”

The accent from the White Kingdom was thicker, the sounds fuller and for a second hours of diction crossed Regina’s mind; her mother’s perfect accent and voice filling her memory before she could do anything to prevent them.

“It isn’t exactly difficult to recognize someone from one of the most well-known families in all the enchanted forest” The brunette finally replied with a mocking salute as she tried to not let show the effect her mother’s memory had made on her. Fortunately the blonde looked too worried on blushing and looking away than trying to understand why the infamous woman averted her gaze, her eyes now covered with her bangs.

“I suppose the question here is how much do you want uh?” The blonde asked, a sad smile crossing her features. The statement made Regina hum as she regained her usual calmness; she had indeed thought about asking for money but after taking a proper look to the poor state of the blonde it was obvious that she wasn’t seeing the bigger picture, one that could be interesting to know even if only was a mere rumor or just the adventures of a particular stubborn royal.

“How about you tell me what you were doing on that ship?” She asked instead as she walked towards the blonde; her boots clanked heavily against the planks and the hem of the dress coat hugged her calves for a second. The cleavage of the fabric was open enough to let the medallion she always wore shine against the oil lamps that illuminated the place and as Emma’s eyes focused on it it seemed like the blonde was about to ask about it instead of answering her.

“I was traveling” She finally said, her eyes narrowing slightly as Regina’s own pupils looked at her. She knew that the blonde was lying although she couldn’t understand why.

She knew that the best option for her would be to travel up north and ask for the quantity of money she wanted to ask. Being the heir she knew that the monarchs wouldn’t tell her no. The idea of going back to the White Kingdom though was something that she didn’t exactly want to consider.

“Since you aren’t going to tell me anything” She said after a few more seconds, her lips curling in a sneer that made her voice grow deeper “I will give you to the Midas king, he will be the one who will dispose you”

Midas was known to be one of the most cruel men of the entire reigns only shadowed by The Dark One himself so when Emma’s eyes flashed with worry and anger the brunette was already prepared.

“Although if you tell me what you are doing here I will think about letting you go on the southern reigns, the fairy waters are always easy to navigate for example”

The caustic comment elicited a grunt from the blonde who crossed her arms in front of her chest and didn’t say anything else. Around the wrists Regina could distinguish traces of some kind of rope; she had been tied up and judging by the quality of her clothes they had been in tatters long before the fight between her men and the other ones had begun.

However, it wasn’t her place to ask about those things and so she nodded once again before walking past her and opening her door, her men already waiting for the two of them.

“Leave her on the hold” She commanded them, glancing quickly at Graham who had appeared behind them with a curious look on his eyes. Thanks to his enhanced earing he probably knew by now the same Regina knew so she nodded at him once before motioning towards the blonde, the woman’s body shivering slightly when she abandoned the slightly warmer place of Regina’s cabin. “And find her something to wear”

The man at her right, a tall red-head one who had been a cricket before Regina had met him, nodded dutifully. He worked as the ship’s quack and if the brunette captain could confide in someone to provide the blonde food and clothes it would be him.

“Yes captain” He squawked, his voice breaking for a second time as he and the other man escorted the blonde towards the hold.

Graham didn’t even wait for the three of them to disappear before he entered on Regina’s cabin, the brunette sighing inwardly before following him and closing the door behind her.

“You don’t think this was a trap” The man said and even if it wasn’t exactly a question the brunette nodded as she walked back towards her desk grabbing a bottle of dwarves’ liquor and serving it into two cups. She hated the grog and, although she normally drank it alongside with her men, she normally tried to drink something better than the salty drink.

“A trap to what end?” She answered after drinking the whole cup while unzipping the coat with her free hand. “It’s not like the ship was prepared to attack us or the Dark One for that matter”

Graham nodded, nursing his own drink with his right hand as her left toyed with the pieces of two crystal dice the brunette had found somewhere near Wonderland’s waters a few years ago.

“The white reign’s heir…” He said, darting a quick glance towards the brunette who was now putting the sword back to her normal place next to the desk, the sheath shimmering lazily for a second in a purple tone “Why leaving her on Midas? You know the reign is one of the most dangerous one, she won’t stand a chance against the kind if he decides that she is more useful with him”

The words of the man, albeit reasonable, made Regina cringe for a second, Midas wasn’t exactly a lovable king and many rumors existed about how a group of rebels were already talking about winning the crown for themselves and start a democracy on the reign. A strange idea but one that even the ones who lived permanently on the sea had heard.

“I won’t play politics, not with you” She finally said, caressing now her waistcoat with her free hand. She normally didn’t look or even touch the medallion she had on her neck but after her brief talk with the blonde she felt in need to see the picture she had asked to be made on some distant deck on the fairy kingdom years ago. Daniel’s face smiled at her for the few seconds she looked at it, the medallion hot against her digits as Graham waited, deep sorrow flashing on his own eyes. He knew the woman too well to know that the brunette would ever told him about Daniel, not like the way she had talked about him one of the few times he had seen her drunk a few years back. “Besides, it’s not my fault if Midas wants to use her, we won’t leave her near the capital but on some distant decks. I was thinking about Dragon’s nest, two days ago from the capital”

The place was a little village quite close to the capital. The city most important story was what had happened a few years back when the former Prince David killed the dragon who had killed his twin brother James and it had been thanks to that particular thing what had made the place rich and famous in a way that no one would have ever think about. Many princes and noblemen filled the mountains that surrounded the shoreline trying to kill a dragon and return with a trophy and although it wasn’t exactly the best of places in the entire forest Regina knew that once Emma was recognized it would be probable for her to find someone from the White Kingdom who would be able to help her.

Or not, but she refused to think about that.

“Back to Midas waters then?” Graham asked, softly making her focus on him once again. He wasn’t happy with her decision and the brunette knew it but as much as the werewolf liked to protest the brunette was his captain after all.

Nodding, she turned and glanced ostensibly at the maps she had scattered all over the desk making the man know that she wanted to be alone. Grumbling, Graham left his cup over the table and left. As the brunette captain started to feel the ship moving behind her feet once again she grabbed the cup and drowned it making a face when the strong liquor caressed her throat.

Midas waters were far away enough to consider the possibility of using magic but being so close to the Dark One made her feel uneasy. Besides, she thought, traveling normally would help her crew to not forget the basics.

* * *

 

_The author blinked, he had long ago decided to sit in front of the magical fire as the creature told him about that other thread, the one that he would have needed to write._

_“I don’t understand” He said more to himself than anything else, the idea of asking where he was was slowly disappearing from her mind as more details appeared._

_“Then listen and you will understand” The creature mumbled, its form approaching the Author for a second as he kept floating, filling the cave with the images of its tale._

* * *

 

In a particular throne room, in the middle of an abandoned castle, reptilian eyes opened with a startle, dark reed magic making the candles of the place to light up.

Rumplestiskin grinned; he had finally felt what he had been waiting for after years of patient silence. His smirk, however, turned into a scowl when he tried to use his magic, the summoning spell failing every time he tried it. Grabbing his crystal ball he tried to see what clearly was running away from him.

The name of a ship and a face that he already knew too well was the only information he managed to discern.

“So Regina has come out and wants to play?” He thought to himself, a mad giggle echoing on the castle’s room.


	3. Thunderstorm

The broken shoreline of Midas reign was silhouetted at Emma’s right for a second before fog covered her vision. Thanks to the mines that covered almost the eighty percent of the reign, mountains and edged caves were the only visible thing on its lands, even from the distance. The blonde sighed and turned to her work, her eyes searching the ones of a particular brunette as she worked.

They had been on open sea for two and half weeks now and the dark and malicious waters of the dark one’s reigns had slowly but surely changed to the equally malicious waters of Midas’. The shoreline of the reign had been hidden under clouds and fog for almost the entire time they had been traveling but judging by the mumbled words she’d heard every now and then they would arrive to Dragon’s nest sometime between the middle of the night.

After the first few days of being only allowed to be on the hold a tall, handsome man- who she had already seen back the night she had arrived there- had entered on her new jail and has asked her if she knew anything about ships. After Emma’s affirmative nod he had put her to work on the ropes alongside with Tim and Marco letting her know that he was Graham, the captain’s second, and if something bad happened she would need to answer to him.

So far everything had gone smoothly and even if the captain appeared and looked at her with a scowl on her face she had yet to talk to her again.

She smiled a little when the memory of how the brunette had looked strangely pleased and equally bothered when she had told her that she knew who she was. Regina Mills was almost an institution on the Enchanted Forest and boys and girls alike feared her as much as they wanted to be her.

It was told that the brunette beauty had told “no” to the Dark One himself before actually asking him to work for him. The man, impressed, had granted her with the power of immortality; nothing could kill or injure her and even if Emma wasn’t a child anymore and knew that not every tale is true fragments of it were widely known all over the Enchanted Forest. The woman worked for Rumplestiskin and was as fierce as much as she was wise; being near her, even with a future so uncertain as she now had, was a privilege and for a second Emma let herself imagine the way some people back in the palace would think and act if she ever told them about the fact that she had been so close of none other but Regina Mills.

Not that they would ever know though.

“You, move” She heard and nodded at the wrinkled face of Marco. The man didn’t exactly look like he was a bad man but something on his eyes, a loss, made her tremble every time she needed to look at him. “Go to the stern and bring me the bucket I gave to that sawbones of Arch”

Nodding, the blonde turned and scurried away towards the gentle, red- haired man. He had been the one who had given her the clothes she now wore; a faded and too much used shirt and some pantaloons that had been black at some point but saltpeter had turned them into a dark grey with some white patches.

The man was kind and this time he smiled at her before handing her the bucket after emptying it quickly. “Don’t worry” He said when she looked worriedly at the now empty bucket “It was just water”

Nodding, the blonde turned and walked back where Marco was waiting for her as the rest of the crew worked. She had become accustomed to the ship’s work back in the other one so the long, cold and barely dry days didn’t bother her as much as they had at first. Her feet tapped against the planks of the deck as she jumped and grabbed the ropes, the bucket on the air for a second before Marco grabbed it quickly.

Feeling observed she turned and nodded towards Graham; the man didn’t look dangerous either although something on his eyes made the blonde woman shiver from time to time; something there wasn’t right, or exactly normal but as much as her curiosity wanted her to ask about it no men talked to her more than necessary.  Sighing, she nodded merrily at him before turning and going back to her work. The clouds were already starting to disappear once again, the shoreline looking quite closer than a few minutes before; the wind was doing its job.

“She is quite skilled” Regina mumbled from her cabin, she used the peephole from there to spy the work of the blonde. Normally she would already be on the deck with her crew working alongside with them but the White princess made her feel slightly nervous and so she had decided to stay away from her. The Dragon’s nest was close after all, a few more hours and the problem wouldn’t be hers.

“Indeed” Graham’s voice was heard from the now open door of the cabin, a small smirk on his face that lightened his normally somber expression. He had been showing that smirk more often than not after he had caught her looking at the blonde woman with something close to utter fascination. Emma was a princess but the way she moved and swayed alongside the ship was something both strange and alluring; the blonde moved herself without the normal grace a princess would but something on her step, on the way she talked, moved and reacted made her even more interesting that what she would have been.

“How much until we arrive?” She heard herself ask as she closed the peephole and approached her desk; she hated feeling trapped and her self-imposed retirement was making her lack of her normal patience around Graham’s games.

“A few hours, we should be there before they close the deck for the night” The man informed. All the enchanted forest’s decks had a very specific rules about berthing ships but judging by the way they moved and how much the wind seemed to blow they would arrive at the city without having any problems. “Although you would know that if you were out there with us. Like always”

Ignoring the pun the brunette scoffed and sat on her desk, the place looking even more ruffled than normal.

“Are we doing the right thing?” She heard herself ask as she traced the chain that hold her medallion on its place with her left hand. Over the last few days she had actually being thinking about Daniel a lot and she didn’t know if it was because of that or just because the blonde’s presence but something about her made her think about the proper way to act. She normally didn’t have so many problems with men and women alike who passed near her ship; if she needed to defend herself she preferred to avoid murders and it was only on the Dark One’s border where she allowed her men to actually have some fun although they also didn’t kill anyone on purpose. She knew that her moral could be seen as twisted considering the fact that all those men would end up eaten by Rumple’s monsters a few hours after escaping her ship but from her point of view she was doing as much as she wanted and was able to. Emma… Princess Emma being handed to King Midas wasn’t something too complicated or even morally grey. The monarch was a bad man but that didn’t make Regina a bad woman.

Or it did?

Sighing and shaking her head she let the medallion where it should be and looked at Graham; the werewolf was tapping his fingers against the table, his eyes reflecting back the light of the settling sun that seeped through the planks and the window of Regina’s cabin.

“And what’s exactly the right thing?” He asked, smiling sadly for a second before shrugging.

Regina had found him after Leopold had opened up the wolf hunting almost thirteen years back on the final days of his mandate. Many wolves and werewolves had died the nights after that command and Graham’s pack had died under the swords of the ones who believed that the wolves needed to be eradicated. Something that Regina didn’t share. At first the man had barely said a word but as months passed and he had started to understood what Regina did and the general story of why she did it he had decided to stay next to her, even if the sea wasn’t his place.

It had been too long since Regina had seen the gaze of the wolf on Graham’s eyes; the wolf who had lost everything. It seemed that Emma’s presence wasn’t only bringing back her own ghosts anymore and for a second Regina felt rage and fatigue. Decisions, everything was because of one she hadn’t taken and another one who she had indeed taken years before Graham or even Leopold was old enough to start forgetting his own name.

“Go back to the deck and told the men to hide the flags, although Midas and his men tend to look at the other side if someone recognizes the princess we will be in trouble, better not to have anything that can make us look as kidnappers”

Graham raised a skeptical eyebrow at the woman’s wording but didn’t say anything; the two of them knew that if Midas men decided to start trouble nothing would help them.

* * *

 

The Dragon’s nest was a little village that looked exactly as it was; a place who had started to grow too fast for the people that lived there to catch up. Here and there merchants and grocers tried to cry louder and sell their goods faster than the others and even if it was a common law to have at least four guards in each deck the blonde didn’t see any of the king’s men.

“Stay here” Marco had whispered quietly at her before nodding and smiling sadly; the man wasn’t exactly good with words but Emma had smiled and nodded back, through the many places she had already been since she had closed the metaphorical door with her kingdom she had seen many different people; Marco had surely been one of the most interesting ones and the blonde princess almost felt sorrow for not being able to have the opportunity to know him better.

Another thing was the captain who had barely been visible before and after the moment they had started to berth the ship. All orders have been commanded by the woman’s second and now that Emma knew she was probably going to be sold to the best bidder the brunette woman didn’t even have the nerve to be present.

“Some hero…” She whispered, remembering the tales the troubadours chanted from time to time, telling stories of heroes and monsters back on the dark one’s reign.  The woman was a pirate, hated in many decks because of her job but in many other places, reigns in which the dark one’s influence was too strong to even try to free themselves, the woman was seen more like a tragically fallen hero. A particular hard pill to swallow after what Emma had seen about Regina. She wasn’t a bad person but not exactly a good one and as the blonde whispered inwardly she let the fingers of her right hand play idly with the only thing she had carry all the way from the palace; the medal she had engraved herself back when she had only been fourteen years old. The swan she had craved on the metal shone, catching t the first rays of moonlight and winked between her fingers. The crew would be quickly dismissed, free to drink in the few inns that circled the old deck and with them she would go until Regina, or Graham for that matter, decided where it would be better to free them.

“At least I’m not fish food” She mumbled, knowing that with her luck she could have ended up being eaten by a manticore or something equally worse.

“I couldn’t have say it better” A deep, masculine voice said at her back making her jump slightly. When she turned she found herself looking at the soulless eyes of Graham. The man had always a particular somber expression that seemed to grow darker every time Emma approached him and now it wasn’t an exception; dressed in dark leather and grey wool the man looked every bit of the pirate he was although the boots and the sword at his side made him look more like a merchant than anything else. She had also heard a few whispers between a few men on the deck as they berthed the ship, whispers about the man’s condition and so she eyed wearily at him, unsure if she could believe what probably was anything but a prank ideated by the crew to mock her.

Although, she decided, the man certainly looked like what a werewolf would look.

Swallowing and nodding quickly Emma looked back towards the modest village taking notice of the way a few men that were already eyeing the merchandises of other ships looked at them with something close to respect and fear.

“Come with me” Graham commanded once the occupants of the ship started to move having being granted with the complete access to the deck by the only official that seemed to be on it.

Emma closed her hands and turned them into fists, thinking about the probability of being able to run away. Something complicated since the quickest route would be running and trying to go deeper into the city, city she didn’t knew.

Glancing at her sides, half expecting to see the captain of the ship looking at her with those impossible dark chocolate eyes, she was met with Arch’s brief smile before him, too, jumped off the ship and approached one of the open inns whose doors were directly opened to the deck. From inside music and laughs could be heard and Emma would have said that she could hear a quite popular song that even a few troubadours seemed to sing back on the palace’s feasts before the door closed again.

Following Graham she took a last glance of the ship that bobbed up and down in front of her and walked away, thinking that, at least, she had seen the (in) famous Regina Mills even if it had only been a second.

“Wait for me Graham” Another voice was heard, this time deep and rich but distinctively feminine. Regina looked as dashing as the first time the blonde had seen her, this time dressed completely in black. A color that seemed to be a preference for Midas’s men who, now that they were out of the deck, seemed to be waiting in every street; everyone dressed black and Emma saw how a few ones glanced at her, some with curiosity, some other just out of fear.

“Captain” The title sounded strange on the man’s lips and, for a moment, it almost seemed like Regina had been in the verge of a smile. “I thought you didn’t want to come”

Regina’s lips thinned, her expression turning darker. “Don’t start” She warned him making Graham nod and walk slower until both him and the captain were escorting Emma.

“Where are you bringing me?” The blonde finally asked, out of curiosity than anything else.

Graham didn’t answer and as the three of them kept walking and walking even deeper on the city Regina was the one who spoke, her right hand grabbing the handle of her sword and her eyes looking at the shadows that seemed to grow in the corners of the streets.

“You won’t be safe on the decks” She provided “And although what you may think of me I’m a fair woman”

“We are escorting you towards the big deck; in there nobles and others are the ones that deck their ships there. It’s at the other side of the city, at the east from the old deck. Normally we need to use a safe-conduct but…”

In that moment, in the middle of a particular shady street and under the fetid odors that seemed to emanate from the old and barely paved floor a bunch of men exited one little tavern at the end of the street. The group was obviously wasted and both Graham and Regina moved aside, the first one looking at the group with obvious distaste, the foul odor they emanated worse to what Emma had already grow accustomed to back in the _Rocinante._

The blonde opened her mouth, ready to say something, the captain’s body close enough to hers that she could actually feel the two firearms that the woman seemed to have crossed at her back, hidden by the coat she wore. “They…” She whispered, taking a look at one of the shorter men and shivering, suddenly recognizing them.

It was already too late since one of the tallest; a dark-haired one with a hook and a smile that he obviously considered charming but was more sleazy than anything else, turned and looked at her twice, the stupor of the alcohol disappearing from his pupils the moment he recognize her.

“Well, look what we have found” He said playfully, his men laughing a little at that as he kissed his fingers and blew it towards Emma who shook her head and tried to move away.

Regina, for her part, narrowed her eyes; she knew who she had in front of her since he was almost as famous and well-known as her although neither of them had been together before. Killian Hook was known because of his sleazy behavior, something that even the meagre and poor codex from what the pirates ruled themselves called despicable in many, different ways.

The man was obviously pleased with himself and as Regina looked at what seemed to be an equally scared and mad White princess she heard quite an interesting amount of money being whispered by the other men who accompanied Hook, all of them eyeing Emma almost with gluttony.

“Back off, she is with us” She said slowly, rising her voice and lowering her head, her eyes shining menacingly as Graham growled at Emma’s other side.

The men turned and looked at them, a glint of curiousness lighting their pupils for a second although Hook was the only one who seemed to recognize her without the clothes she normally wore on combat.

“Well, Regina Mills, the most well-known captain in all the magical seas” The words were simple mockery that didn’t make the brunette act as Hook had planned so he took a step towards the brunette, his breath stinking almost as much as his presence. “Back you off; I’m going to be richer than Midas himself”

That made the brunette frown, Emma was an interesting bounty, sure, but they were on the Midas kingdom and the only way to arrive to the White reign was by horse or by sea and she was the only ship who could cross the dark one’s patch of ocean in the whole continent.

She was about to say something when Hook dragged out his sword, his cold eyes not looking as inebriated as they had looked before.

The captain licked her lips as she glanced at her right where Graham was already dragging out his own sword, his teeth bared in a feral growl. And Emma…

Emma was already attacking fiercely at the man who had tried to approach the group, a little short man that went down almost as quickly as he had tried to attack them.

* * *

 

_“That doesn’t feel right” The author protested, making the fire stop talking and grow warmer for a second, almost as if it was inviting him to say something. “The pirate’s the savior’s true love”_

_The creature only stood in front of the man completely silent. The images of what it had been describing floating around it, the words echoing on the cave._

_“There are things that can’t be changed” It finally spoke, a low murmur lacing its words “Even if the threads are severed they will always appear once again. The savior’s true love is one of those things”_

_Troubled by what the being was telling him the Author nodded, patiently listening to Merlin as the magical creature moved further away from him and started once again._

* * *

 

The brunette woman attacked Hook first, her sword glowing dimly in purple tones as the other pirate launched, trying to wound her enough to make more room in the quite narrow alley.

“Back off” She said, at her back the sounds of screams and swords clanking against each other making her smirk. Graham was a tough opponent and Emma hadn’t exactly looked like the type of princess who couldn’t take care of herself.

“I don’t think so lass” Hook replied, moving his whole body to the right as he avoided one of her attacks and for a second the idea that they had fallen into a trap appeared on the back of Regina’s mind, Hook certainly didn’t look drunk anymore and his hand was firm as he tried to make her lose.

Not that she was going to do it of course, Regina was many things and had lied to many in her lifetime but she intended to keep the promise she had made to the blonde and no matter how much some dirty pirate tried to steal her in order to win a few coins with the heir. She wasn’t going to give in so easily.

At her back, someplace at her right, she heard the scream of a woman, albeit Dragon’s nest wasn’t exactly known because of the rules the king gave the brunette cursed inwardly knowing that if the word about a sword fight started to spread they were going to need to flee as soon as they were able to.

“Graham” She called, blindly looking above her shoulder as she attacked Hook again. She could hear Emma also but between the narrowness of the place and the poor light she wasn’t able to see where the blonde was.

“Got it” Her second answered; his voice more than a growl than a human voice at that point.

Regina smirked at Hook, whose face had now a greenish color that made her attack him even more strongly. “Something you wanted to say?” She asked teasingly as she raised her arm and tried to disarm him.

Suddenly, due to the slippery rocks which was made the roads of the village and that she was briefly startled by another scream, this time louder than the first, she felt herself losing her foot. Her arm didn’t point at the desired place anymore and it made her open her arms more than she had should eliciting an entrance for Hook’s sword, entrance that the pirate took gladly, briefly grazing her clothing before being shoved away by both Graham and Emma; the second one looking at the man with a mix of fear and rage that a now slightly confused Regina couldn’t see.

“Go away before I remember that you are worthless” Graham said grabbing the man’s coat and shoving him off, his sword felling to the floor. The sound of the blade hitting it made Emma look at it with her stance still guarded, almost dangerous-looking, and for a brief second Regina could have sworn that there was a dirty white hue around her hands, like a mist that disappeared as soon as she blinked.

“Are you ok cap?” Graham said once Hook scurried away, the blonde in complete silence and refusing to look at the two of them. Regina nodded, touching her chest where Hook’s sword had wounded her, the wound was already healing and for a second she clenched her fist around the helm of the sword in disgust.

“Yes, but I think it would be better if we traveled south, as soon as the guard arrive they aren’t going to try to listen our explanations”

* * *

 

The brunette was already fuming by the moment the door of her quarters was closed behind her. As she turned she caressed the leather of her vest, her black boots hitting the wooden floor as she approached the already sitting blonde who was still holding Hook’s sword on her right hand, a wound on her cheek drippling blood on the shirt she wore.

“Care to tell me what all of that was about?” She asked, her eyes glancing at the bull’s eye that was opened at her right. The Midas shoreline was already a blurry line on the horizon and for a second she let herself relax.

“I don’t know” Emma said at her left, a frown on her brows and a stubborn glint on her green eyes that made Regina want to hiss at her. The blonde woman was playing now with the sword, blood still dripping on her clothes and hands although she didn’t seem aware of it. The sword’s handle was now on her wool covered knees and as Regina looked at her she almost looked like the pirate the brunette knew she wasn’t. Hard and determinate in a way that Regina had already seen glimpses of it.

“Don’t lie to me” She whispered after a few seconds of silence. She was now standing directly in front of Emma and although her worry was starting to win over her anger she still wanted to know what had meant what had happened in the Midas’ decks. “Hook knew you, why?”

Emma sucked on her lower lip, her left hand was now caressing the handle of the sword and for a second Regina saw the way the muscles on the woman’s arm tense, almost as if she was thinking of grabbing the sword and run.

“Don’t” She whispered menacingly and even if Emma knew that Regina wouldn’t hurt her a flash of worry crossed her eyes, ghosts haunting her pupils for a second.

“The white kingdom hadn’t been with its heir from a few months now” She finally admitted between gritted teeth. “There is a price that the monarchs promised if someone brought me back to them”

Regina frowned as she approached the blonde woman cautiously; Emma’s hold on the sword was strong and even if the pirate was fairly sure that she could win a fight against the princess she had seen her fighting and wasn’t exactly as lost as she would have think off.

“How is that we didn’t hear anything?” She finally asked although the answer was on her mind even before the blonde looked back at her; they hadn’t exactly being near any capital during that period. As far as her memory went they had been navigating between the dark one’s waters, Midas and Rapunzel’s for almost a year, both the dark one’s request and her own thirst of adventures making them blind and deaf to the world. “Never mind”

The blonde nodded, her index finger caressing the blade once again, a fine line of red opening on her digit as she looked at something that Regina couldn’t exactly see.

“I needed to escape” She finally said. “There is a lot that I needed… that I couldn’t stand anymore”

Regina frowned, she had barely been talking with the blonde since their first conversation but she was able to see the strained look the blonde sported.

“I was born under the idea that my fate was to save everyone in this land” The woman finally started, her eyes focused solely on the blade and when Regina snorted she also let out a soft smile. “Theoretically I was marked to be one of the most powerful woman alive in the entire enchanted forest but when I finally arrived… the fairies told my parents that my fate had changed and I wasn’t bound to a destiny anymore”

The brunette raised one brow, the tale was something she could relate; fates, prewritten destinies. She had once got ridden of one of those.

 _“And look where you have ended up”_ A voice inside her said. Giving her back to the blonde she grabbed one of the pistols she usually had on the leather belts that used whenever she needed to inspire terror in the middle of a fight. The nacre emblem that was on it was from some city near the border of Neverland and as she caressed it she nodded, motioning the blonde to continue.

Apparently Emma had been looking at her because her voice filled the place, the soft tones ricocheting on the wooden walls as she explained herself.

“Without destiny the fairies didn’t found me interesting anymore and my parents found themselves with a child that wasn’t going to be the savior they had believed. Apparently the Dark One tried to buy me when I was a child but my mother… didn’t like the deal and called it off”

Regina’s eyes narrowed, remembering all too well the deal her own mother had tried to pull it off from both the dark one and the blonde’s grandfather.

“So, once I started to approach my 21th birthday my parents started to grow even more nervous, I don’t know the details of the prophecy because the fairies had refused to share it with me and I doubt my parents knew all of it back when they believed in it. Apparently I’m more like a problem than anything else due to the fact that I was born with a fate that later on could never be fulfilled.”

“And that’s why you run away” Regina replied, turning and looking at the blonde with piercing eyes, her hands at her back, laying on the table. Emma nodded, her features still marred because of the open wound she sported but still looking every bit the princess she was.

“I don’t like being in a place in where is obvious I’m not needed” She finally said. “It didn’t matter the titles I had, only the fact that I wasn’t wanted because I was conceived under an idea that I couldn’t fulfill once I finally existed”

The brunette hummed “Then why did you agreed to the deal I offered you?” She asked, making Emma snort and leave the sword on the chair she had been seated until then, approaching Regina a little. The movement made Regina clench her jaw, noticing the blonde not-so-subtle looks to the place she had been pierced with Hook’s sword.

“I didn’t exactly have any other option; I planned to simply run away once you decided to leave me”

Regina bit her bottom lip, knowing that Emma was in fact right, the blonde didn’t had anything that could have tell her Regina would have been open to a debate and to be truthful she knew that she wouldn’t have listened to her. But Hook’s appear…

“And Hook?” She asked “He is one of the most well-known pirates in all the seas, how is that you know each other?”

The blonde sighed, eyes dropping to the floor of the ship that kept balancing under their feet.

“I traveled south at first but after being recognized in some cites I moved to the coast, trying to travel with some merchants and move away from my parents influence. Hook was the one who offered me to travel with him and at that time I didn’t have any other option so I took it”

“And…?”

“He sold me to a merchant ship once he knew about my situation. The men in that ship tried to cross the dark one’s seas and that’s how I ended up on your ship”

That was something that certainly explained both Hook’s reaction and the mystery of how a woman like Emma had ended up in some low merchant ship that almost no one in it had known to fight with a sword.

“I suppose I will need to think what I can do with you then” Regina finally said pinching the bridge of her nose “Until then you will be here if that’s okay with you”

The blonde princess nodded, eyeing nervously at Regina, a question between her lips that she finally didn’t ask.

“Damn it” The brunette muttered to herself once the blonde nodded, grabbed the sword again and closed the door of the cabin behind her. She knew that the most intelligent thing was to actually go as close as possible to the white kingdom and leave the blonde in there.

But she couldn’t, there were a lot of things the blonde had told her that she could not only understand but share and she wasn’t going to leave Emma in a place in where only because of the stars she had been born under all of her was considered worthless. She had already paid a lot of that mistake herself.

Moving towards the door she opened it, the sword that  was still attached to her hip glowing purple for a second when she passed where Emma had been seated.

She needed to find Graham, and maybe even try the grog.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the ocean a particular man was smiling in front of a round shimmering ball in which a very well-known pirate was smirking.

“You are sure of this, right?” The man asked, his crocodile-like eyes moving from the ball towards his hands in which a deep red mist was already growing, a cold laugh laced on his words.

“She was here” Hook answered back, moving around his own ship and trying to put as much credibility as he was able to on his words. “She wasn’t alone though”

“Regina” The dark one whispered as he smirked, seeing the pieces already coming together on his mind. He had felt the princesses powers across the sea once the woman had been dropped on the cold dark waters. Unfortunately his plan had failed and the woman had been rescued by the other infamous woman, the one who had sworn him his complete and utter loyalty. The summoning spell he had imprinted on her had also started to grow weaker since the blonde was traveling with her and so he had seen how the blonde’s power left her seas without any traces of ever coming back.

“Yes, her” Hook growled, his face turning from its normal white to a deep shade of red, the humiliation the brunette woman had made him feel still too present on his ego.

“Listen to me, pirate” The dark one said while baring his pointy teeth, the teeth breaking his own skin and making trickles of blood color his mouth as he talked. “I need you to discover where they plan to go and approach the princess as much as you are able to. Make the two women be as apart from each other as you can and wait for orders”


	4. Tsunami

Regina eyed the blonde woman; they were still bordering Midas reigns albeit they were already coming closer to the last borders that marked the waters of the devious king. The men had been restless since she had needed to move all of them in such a short notice from Dragon’s nest and a few murmurs here and there had needed to be taken care off.

Biting her lip she leant on the railing of the bridge, her eyes still looking at the princess who smiled at that moment at something that Tim had said to her. After their encounter against Hook the feeling that the woman was something else had keep nagging her.

She could remember the way she had defended herself, the way she seemed so at ease on her ship, working and learning quickly if she didn’t understand an order. There was the same cocky way of looking at her, almost like a permanent smirk attached to her lips. Regina suspected that Emma’s soft side, the terrorized one she had witnessed, wasn’t something usual for the blonde and so she kept looking at her, curious of the woman she had promised to protect.

Because, she thought as she played with a coin between her fingers, her short tresses caressing her cheeks as she did so, she had not only promised to the blonde to move forward, not leaving her on Dragon’s nest. She had also promised to keep her safe, indefinitely. She hadn’t exactly a plan prepared and whereas the crew wasn’t complaining openly she could already feel the stares every time she turned her back.

“Why?” She asked out loud.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Graham said behind her, the man smirking a little when she turned. After what had happened on Dragon’s nest the quarter master had kept an eye on the blonde, not leaving her alone if he was able to. His behavior had been noticed not only by the blonde but by a few other members of the crew as well but Regina didn’t exactly question her second’s ways. She knew how the man operated after all.

“Why are you sure I’m talking about her?” She retorted, making the werewolf scoff, his wolf-like eyes glowing under the grey clouds the weather had brought them that morning.

“You have that look in you” He finally answered back “You want to ask her something and it’s obvious she is also doubting how she could try to talk with you”

“How do you know that?” The brunette said, trying to disguise the obvious curiosity on her voice.

“Because” Graham replied as Regina grabbed the helm, her hands tightening around the device. Normally it was Bacon the one who kept the ship during the daytime but Regina had ordered him to step aside, her nervousness making her feeling jittery in a very much need of doing something else than just barking orders. “She has been looking at you every time you have exited from that cabin of yours”

Regina growled as she heard the amused tone on the werewolf’s voice. “I though you didn’t like her” She muttered, smiling curtly when she saw how her second flinched a little.

“I don’t think she is like her grandfather” He cautiously said.

“And definitely not like her mother” Regina conceded, sighing when Graham glanced at her. “She knows how to fight” She pointed out “She isn’t like a spoiled princess thinking that she is entitled to everything”

Graham nodded at that, both of they knew that that was something Regina had first thought way before the ship had entered on Midas’ waters but he knew that the woman also needed to say it so she let her be.

“That’s actually something I would like to know more” Regina commented, casually “About her skills, about what exactly did she do before we grabbed her”

“Why?” Graham said, making Regina inhale deeply for a second, her tongue licking her lips. She couldn’t admit to Graham that she wanted to know more about the blonde only because she desired to understand herself and her will to help her no matter what. She couldn’t explain the man that she had actually found herself opening her eyes in the middle of the night with Daniel’s silhouette in front of her eyes, the man’s voice whispering on her ears words that still didn’t hold any kind of significance for her but still kept coming. She couldn’t and so she merely shrugged, unable to say anything else.

“She will be free in a few” The man finally said, tilting his head, his hands at his back, standing as tall as he was like he always did. “Ask her”

And so Regina nodded, leaving the helm away and letting Graham pick it up with a strong hold. “Call Bacon and told him that he can stop pretending to being helping the cook” Regina muttered “I need him on the bridge”

Nodding, Graham turned, his voice piercing the ship and making the short man rush with his face still dirty of some concoction the rest of the crew were probably going to taste in the next few hours.

Regina descended the stair, the sound of her boots against the deck’s wood, a few men looking at her, curiously. She had barely touched the deck since the arrival of a certain blonde and so, when she finally stopped right behind the woman who kept helping Tim on his chorus, she could almost taste the way the crew kept their breaths, faint murmurs on the back of the ship making her almost desire to turn back and fulminate whoever that had talked.

“Princess” She said, making Emma turn around, startled. The blonde’s wound was already healed, the scar that had left behind already fading away. “I believe you still have the sword you grabbed on the skirmish back at Dragon’s nest.”

Emma nodded, doubt on her eyes. Regina smiled, savoring the first seconds of control she was experiencing since the blonde had first laid a foot on her ship.

“I would want you to give it to me since you seem to not being able to carry it” She added, a smirk on her lips when she heard her men guffawing at that. She had obviously mocked the blonde and that was something all her men enjoyed. Graham’s groan was heard but she kept looking solely at Emma. Tim had scurried away meanwhile and the blonde seemed furious.

“I know how to fight” She answered back. Their eyes still focused solely on each other. The tension between them eased up Regina’s doubts; that kind of interaction was something she could control.

“Grab the sword and show it to me” She ordered. The blonde nodded and turned, entering to the crew’s cabins and exiting seconds after with Hook’s sword between her hands.

The crew had already created a circle in the middle of the deck, a few of them murmuring bets and jokes as Regina dragged out her sable from its scabbard. 

It was far easy to understand herself by fighting against the blonde, a brutish move but something she could control at least and show as she feigned a salute she felt surer than ever of herself. Fighting had been something she had learnt too many years ago. Something she felt comfortable doing it.

When the swords finally meet Regina’s sable glowed uncontrollably, Emma’s arm trembling for a second against the brunette’s vigor. Thinking that it was going to be a quick fight the brunette narrowed her eyes, her mouth opening slightly when the blonde moved her feet and managed to unbalance her enough to actually move her own sword upwards, breaking her stance and moving way too close for Regina to do any comfortable move.

Trapped, the brunette jumped at her right side, repositioning herself again and attacking Emma with a swift move, the blonde dodged her and moved. This time she bent her body a little to one side as she did it before answering her attack. Seeing an opening Regina moved her arm, briefly touching the guard of the sword for a second before Emma dodged again.

The situation kept repeating itself over and over again; Regina managing to come close enough to Emma to be sure that this time would be the one in where she finally managed to defeat the blonde but finally Emma moved at one of her sides, blocking the attack. The princess, however, didn’t start an open attack as much as Regina desired so the brunette soon enough started to suspect that Emma was good on dodging but not on attacking and so she started to try to force the blonde in being her the one openly attacking her instead of the other way around.

Finally taking the hint and after minutes of idly playing, Emma jumped doing a semi-circle with her arm, opening herself just enough to create an entrance for Regina’s sable who ended up dangerously close to Emma’s chest as she halted.

Regina smiled, feeling a new found respect for the blonde. Looking at her limpid green eyes she nodded, breathing quickly as she tried to make her heart beat normally once again.

“You fight well” She commented, making the blonde grin; her eyes seeming only focused on the brunette’s face, a blush spreading through her cheeks.

“When I was a child I insisted on being taught how to fight” She said, shrugging easily, her breathing as labored as Regina’s. The crew had started to disperse but neither of them seemed to mind.

“And how is that you know your way around a ship?” Regina asked, making Emma look at her feet, the grip on her sword easing up.

“One of the few things my father taught me. However I didn’t have the opportunity of try what I’d learnt until I started working to manage to keep traveling”

Regina smiled at that, satisfied with the answers. Extending her hand she shook Emma’s firmly, her hand squeezing the paler’s woman for a few more seconds it was needed, a blush also starting to spread through her cheeks when she heard Graham’s cough from the forecastle.

“You can keep the sword” She finally said before leaving Emma alone on the deck. “You had earn it after all”

Graham grinned when she reunited with him on the bridge but neither of them said anything knowing too well that Bacon was too close of them.

“Shut up” The captain said once making Graham snicker and shook his head as Emma glanced at Regina one more time before resuming with her chores.

* * *

 

The blonde looked at the brunette pirate from the corner of her eyes, since their brief talk and battle in Midas’ waters Regina had barely talked with her, her eyes always seeming to turn and look away whenever they were in close proximity to each other.

She didn’t avoid being in the deck anymore though so as the brunette moved and barked orders with a deep frown on her eyes Emma returned to her duties, trying to look as diligent as any other of Regina’s men.

“Wonder where she wants to deck the next time” A few men murmured after Regina walked close to them. Emma bite her bottom lip at that and ducked her head as she worked on the ropes, the esparto bruising her fingers as she did so. Many men hadn’t liked how fast they had needed to abandon Midas’ waters and murmurs were starting to appear here and there. Emma hadn’t wanted to ask Graham- who kept his eyes on her like a hawk- what kind of explanation he had needed to tell to the men while both Regina and her had been talking but judging on the way the crew kept looking sourly at both their captain and second it seemed like the talk hadn’t gone exactly well. After their battle the things had seemed to return back to normal but a few of the crew, the ones who had been punished after their compulsory flight, seemed to start complaining once again.

“I think is better if we just wait” Arch said on his calm voice. The read head man was seated on the deck, next to August, the master gunner, who grunted once as he polished the grip of one of his guns. “Sawbones is right, we need to wait and see what happens”

The other two men who had been murmuring looked at each other in clear disgust but didn’t push the issue once August looked at them, his expression –strange and definitely queasy since one of his eyes was made of wood- making them turn and resume their jobs.

“Idiots” August mumbled before losing himself once again on his own work. Emma smiled at him for a second before returning to her duty feeling Graham’s eyes on her back as she did so.

“They are just curious” Arch answered with a shrug. And, to be truthful, the crew wasn’t the only one feeling curious; since their departure from Dragon’s nest _Rocinante_ has moved upwards, leaving behind Midas kingdom and starting to border some of the kingdoms near to what were fairy lands. Since Regina was also the sailing master almost no one could exactly tell where they were but the shift on the air when they had reached and crossed what was considered to be fairy water’s was noticeable and had made the crew feel even more nervous. “I also thought that you were going to be gone by the time we departed Dragon’s nest” The balding man said after a few more seconds of silence, his intelligent eyes making Emma swallow and nod, not knowing exactly what to answer to that.

“Drop it” August said at the man’s right side, a brow arched as he picked up another of his guns, his finger pointing at the doctor who raised his hands while smiling. “The captain had a reason why we are still moving instead of returning back to the Dark One’s reign. Consider it a gift.”

“It’s that what she does?” The blonde asked curiously, picking up the ropes she had been working on and scooting closer to the two men, one of her tresses escaping the messy ponytail she had made a few days ago with a leather strip. “Moving back and forth between the dark one’s reign I mean”

August looked at Arch for a second before glancing at their surroundings. Here and there men worked together, a few of them chanting old songs that were accompanied from time to time with a laugh and applauses. Almost no one- except Graham who Emma was sure he was in fact listening to them- was paying them any attention.

“It’s in her contract” August finally answered after he was sure that no one was near enough to eavesdrop. “It’s what she needs to do”

The blonde frowned, many stories were known about Regina, about what she had done, but it was the first time the concept of contract had been even mentioned.

“But…” She started “They say that she is with the dark one because she managed to…”

“To what?” August interrupted her with a laugh, his brownish eyes glinting amusedly “To fool him? Those are nothing but tales that old people prefers to tell to the children instead of the truth”

“August…” Arch said warningly, looking at the younger man with a scowl. But Emma was already interested and she didn’t want to let the conversation die.

“Then what happened?” She asked, making the two men look back at her, August with what looked to be a triumphant smile and Arch with a tired look on his eyes.

“She was sold to him” Arch finally said in a quiet murmur “Apparently she had a destiny prewritten even before her mother existed and The Dark One needed her”

“But things went south” August interrupted, shrugging as she grabbed another gun and started cleaning it, not even bothering to look at Arch when the doctor cleared his throat in annoyance. “What? Is not like we have anything else to tell”

Arch returned back to Emma, the blonde blinking slowly as she digested the information and suddenly remembering the way Regina had looked at her when they had talked to each other back on Dragon’s nest.

“A prewritten fate…” She thought, nodding to herself. Unfortunately for her she couldn’t ask anything else to the two men since Graham barked to them, making both Arch and August to stand up and leave her side.

* * *

 

_The author looked at the fire and sighed, still not sure of what the creature was trying to explain._

_“What are you trying to imply?” He finally asked a mockery tone on his voice “That our work is fruitless?”_

_The being, instead of answering, kept telling the story, the magic crackling as the voice filled the room once again._

* * *

 

Soon after Emma talked with the two men the blonde decided to approach Graham when Regina moved indoors, the man looked at her from the corner of his eyes as he feigned to be taken care of the shrouds but didn’t say anything.

“Where are we going?” The blonde asked, moving closer towards Graham and refusing to move even when the man turned and looked at her. The blonde saw a few men looking at their direction but no one approached them.

“Somewhere” The man answered with a shrug, a defiant look on his eyes. There was something on his pupils that made Emma swallow, not quite sure of what to do next. The Quarter master smirked smugly when she didn’t say anything and turned once again, his hands grabbing the ropes and testing them on the shrouds, not bothering to even look at her twice. Not until the blonde woman spoke again, her arms crossed over the loose shirt she wore making her look younger than her years.

“I think I deserve to know where I’m going to be abandoned”

The sentence made Graham snicker a little but kept silent until Emma turned, decided to go and find Regina herself if it was necessary.

“She won’t say what you want to know” The dark haired man said, his hands grabbing the shrouds when a wave slightly bigger than the others crashed against the ship.

“And what do you think I’m going to ask?” Emma asked back. Not expecting an answer she returned to the main deck and crossed it, ready to finally talk with the other woman.

The brunette woman barely looked at her when she entered in the cabin, her eyes completely focused on the few maps that were strewed all over her desk like the blonde already suspected was a normal thing. It was considerably interesting the fact that the brunette pirate didn’t seem to mind the constant disarray her quarters were in.

“Graham” She started, but when Emma didn’t answer back she looked up, her eyes narrowing when she adjusted her eyes to the other woman’s features. “Emma”

The way her name was pronounced, with a particular accent Emma couldn’t exactly recognize, made the younger woman bit her bottom lip and blush her hands ironing her clothes nervously as she could feel the leather strip that kept her hair together suddenly feeling uncomfortable and too tight for her liking.

“I wanted to know” She said “Where are you going to drop me”

The pirate sighed and stood, the blonde finally closing the door behind her and being able to smell the liquor Regina had been drinking until then. Smiling faintly at that, she moved towards the older woman. The right hand of Regina was touching the sable that was across the table, between the maps, a faint purple glint visible even under the fainting lights of the sun, the rays starting to disappear from the other side of the horizon.

“There aren’t many places in where we are able to drop you” Regina finally said, grabbing the still half-filled glass and drinking from it, a tired smile growing on her lips once she put the glass back on the table. Licking her lips she turned, giving her back to Emma. She was dressed in leather pants and tall boots, the well fitted blouse leaving almost nothing to imagination. The blonde looked down to her borrowed clothes and sighed, a blush threating to appear. Ever since she had talked with both Arch and August what they had told her seemed to be swirling inside her head, their words echoing over and over again.

“So?” She finally asked, clearing her throat as she took a step back when Regina looked at her, her hands tucked safely at her back as she looked at her carefully.

“I could drop you on the fairy kingdom” The brunette finally answered after a few more minutes of silence “It would be the best solution, and the easiest one. At least is that what Graham keeps telling me”

Turning, Regina looked at her, her face still, a strange look on her eyes as the blonde took another step towards her, the glow of the sable blade shining between the two of them.

Emma nodded, her own hands starting to play with the hem of her shirt, her green eyes noticing the way Regina’s eyes seemed to glow as she looked at her. It was probably the alcohol and the faint light that now illuminated the place but the blonde was completely transfixed and needed a few seconds before answering to what Regina had just confided in her.

 “That’s what you are going to do?” She asked, her voice deeper than she had intended, her mind already going back to the day of the fight, the way Regina had fought against her, not letting her win, making her think, try to be better. Now it seemed just the same, making her try to understand her, fighting against the brunette for information.

The pirate shrugged, her lips forming a line as she put her fingers on the table, the scrapping sound of parchment making Emma look down at them; the drawings of the fairies’ shoreline visible now for her as Regina moved around the maps, apparently not noticing the way Emma looked back at her.

“It would be for the better” The brunette finally answered “You are obviously searched and I doubt it would be a good idea to keep you around more than is necessary”

“Then why don’t you go to the White Kingdom and put me on my parents’ hands?” The green-eyed princess rebutted. That question alone made Regina snort, a cruel smile on her face.

“I don’t want to be near that kingdom” She answered simply, a coldness on her voice that made Emma shiver and frown. She wasn’t afraid of the older woman, she had never exactly be afraid per se, but that moment made her reconsider the little she knew about her and the things she had been discovering until now.

“They say that you’ve never been near the White kingdom in the years you have been a pirate” She finally said, momentarily forgetting what she and Regina were talking about.

The sentence made Regina look at her, her eyes hardening slightly as she abandoned the maps, her back straightening and even if Emma was taller than her she suddenly found herself unable to say anything, feeling minuscule against the sudden change on the demeanor of the pirate.

“That’s what they say?” Regina finally asked, something close to amusement lacing her words.

The princess nodded, the pirate had the reputation of being restless, of changing constantly decks and cities, but she had rarely been seen on White’s waters.

“I suppose is true” The brunette answered, making Emma look at her once again, awaken from her reverie by her voice. She looked gentler now, almost younger, and as she circled the table and propped up on the edge of the table Emma’s eyes focused on the way she observed her, almost predatory, before smirking, an exquisite mask of nonchalance slipping in front of her features.

“Why?” She boldly asked, seeing the telltaling details of a woman being taught to be a noble on the way the brunette tilted her head, mussing her question as if she didn’t know the answer.

“That’s my story to tell” The brunette finally said, a warning on her voice and in the way her eyes glowed alongside with the blade of her sword.

Emma narrowed her eyes, she had been always against the lies and half-truths that had enclosed her ever since she had been born and maybe because of that or maybe because her so-called magic prowess she could see the blatant lies and feel when someone was being insincere.

Licking her lips and steeling herself for the probably whiplash she was going to get, she moved forwards, inches now the only thing that separated her from the brunette woman.

“You know my story” She reasoned.

“You were the one who told me” Regina replied, a glint of humor glowing on her pupils for a second before disappearing. The blonde bit back her answer to that, sighing and closing her eyes for a second, making Regina’s eyes fall from her eyes to her lips during the milliseconds the blonde wasn’t able to see her.

“August told me that you have a contract” The princess finally said, opening her eyes again. “With the dark one”

That made Regina look at her boots, uncomfortable. The mention of the contract was something that never failed to make her remember the woman she had once been, what she had lost, what she had needed to give in order to remain alive.

“I’m going to feed that man’s tongue to the whales” She muttered, making Emma chuckle a little at the statement.

“I thought they weren’t able to eat meat” She provided, making Regina laugh a little at that.

“They will make an exception”

The lighter tone of their conversation was soon forgotten as silence settled in, a sigh escaping the brunette’s lips. It had been ages since she had been so thoughtfully questioned by someone who wasn’t Graham but she didn’t find in herself the will to feel angered by the blonde woman in front of her.

“Why aren’t you sending me to the Dark One?” The blonde finally asked, worry echoing on her voice. Both women knew that the devious imp was probably the sovereign who would make the most lucrative deal for the pirate since his hate for the white crown was very well known in all the reigns of the forest. Having the heir of the throne could probably be the best thing Regina would ever be able to give to him.

It was strange, Emma mussed, until Arch and August hadn’t told her about the contract the thought of being given to the dark one himself hadn’t even crossed her mind.

But now…

Regina clenched her hands, now carefully crossed in front of her chest as she tried to find the best way to explain herself to the blonde. Something that was also strange on its own way since the princess would be the first human living to who she gave any explanation of why she did what she did.

Strangely she didn’t mind it.

“I have a contract” She finally said smoothly “But that doesn’t mean that I can’t do as I please”

The way she said those last words made Emma tremble for a second, her eyes focused solely on Regina’s brown ones.

“And why is that?”

The pirate shrugged once again, moving to her right and finally taking a few steps away from Emma’s presence as she tried to arrange her ideas.

“I won’t give you to the dark one” She provided, refusing to answer Emma’s previous question. “He doesn’t own me”

The blonde hummed, not knowing what more to say and considering the way Regina looked about to order her to abandon the cabin she realized that there wasn’t anything else that she could say or do.

Turning, she approached the door, feeling a tingle when she passed across a few objects that shimmered with different kinds of magic reacting for a second before dying once again.

“Thank you” She said, opening the door and closing it without saying anything else, her voice cracking a little at the end.

As soon as she was alone again Regina let out a sigh. It had been years since she had thought consciously on the day she had given herself to the dark one, the part that she had fought hard to keep, the freedom she had believed was the only thing that could keep going. And now the thought of the little old piece of parchment was unable to leave her mind for more than a few seconds.

Besides, she thought as she walked towards the strange-looking quill that had reacted to the blonde’s presence, there was definitely something else on the blonde. Even if it was something that she couldn’t pinpoint.

“I’m impressed” Graham’s voice filled the place seconds later, making Regina roll her eyes at the amusement present on the man’s tone. “You haven’t killed her, even if when I’m the one who interrupts you you always manage to told me that one day you are going to feed me to the sharks”

“I think that what you are doing right now is precisely that” She replied, a growl echoing on the back of her throat as she turned. The man was standing on the doorway, a lopsided smile parting his lips as she walked towards her table and seated, her sable glowing a little bit stronger as she placed the quill near her for a second.

“What are going to do?” Graham asked, entering inside the cabin and closing the door behind him in the same fashion Emma had done. Regina threw back her head, passing her fingers between her short tresses as she tried to find the best way to answer to that particular question.

“Fairy reigns would be the best option” She answered straightening on the chair and pointing at the maps she had been looking at when Emma had entered.

“But you don’t want to make her go there” Graham added, a teasing tone that made the pirate grin his teeth on frustration.

“You know, for less than that there are captains who would get you killed” She said moodily making the other man laugh at that.

“You aren’t exactly like other captains” He offered, scratching his stubble. His eyes glowed a little, the wolf’s influence visible on him for a second. “And you aren’t planning on leaving her on fairy reigns either”

Regina grabbed the helm of her sword for a second before relaxing; the magic infused on the blade responding at her touch and the sound of magic crackling against her skin could be heard on her cabin. Graham didn’t even flinch at that although he looked at the woman warningly, knowing full well the kind of effect the burrowed magic of the blade had on the woman.

“I don’t know what to do” Regina finally said, his eyes purple for a second “There is something that keeps telling me that I can’t get ridded of her, not yet. And there is Hook back on Dragon’s nest”

“You don’t think that was a mere coincidence?” Graham asked, crossing his arms and tilting his head a little, a deep concern showing on his face for a second.

“I think it was” The woman answered, scratching her forehead, her hair shadowing her eyes as she shook her head. “But I doubt he is going to let Emma go so easily”

“We have one of the best ships in the entire forest” The quarter master said although that didn’t help with Regina’s obvious distress.

“He also has an enchanted ship” She pointed out “And Emma means a big gain if he manages to put his hands on her”

“So you are thinking about making him believe that we have let her go on the fairies kingdom in case he is following us” The man said, suddenly understanding what Regina had been planning to do.

The woman nodded, grabbing the glass and trying to drink from it, a disgusted look on her eyes as she realized that it was empty. Leaving the glass on the table with a thud and grabbing the bottle of the liquor she nodded, serving herself a healthy gulp before swallowing it down.

“I don’t trust him” She provided “And traveling up north from the other side would mean the imp, something that I don’t want to encounter”

“Do you think he would try to make you give Emma to him?” Graham asked, not even battering an eyelash as his captain proceeded to gulp down a second glass.

“For what I know about Emma what makes me think that there is more than what we can see is the fact that he hadn’t contacted me yet. He is able to feel almost everything once someone crosses his borders.”

“And the princess’ presence isn’t something that we could call normal” Graham finished for her, suddenly understanding a few things that for him had been obscure until now.

“Precisely” Regina finished “My contract stipulates that I need to get ridden of every ship that crosses his borders, what I do besides of that shouldn’t be interesting for him and yet…”

“You wonder”

Regina nodded, sighing when she felt the pleasant buzz on the back of her head as she finished another glass.

“He told me once that I couldn’t escape destiny” She said, a painful look on her eyes “That what I tried that day wouldn’t work in the long run. Emma is in the same predicament now Graham and I don’t believe that Rumplestiskin doesn’t know anything about this fact”

The quarter master nodded, leaving the brunette’s cabin soon after with worry starting to grow inside of him. There was definitely something about the princess, something that was making his captain tremble like he had never seen her before.

* * *

 

Far away from the _Rocinante_ , inside the enchanted forest and near a sea with waters as dark as coal, a man giggled to himself as he eyed a certain wand he had robbed from a particular fairy too long ago to even matter anymore.

Everything was ready and as he caressed his clothes and let his pointy fingers caress the silk embroideries on his vest. He turned, happily whistling a tune as he crossed one of the hallways his castle possessed.

The dark kingdom was a particular one in where no soldiers or peasants lived in and the only thing that could be heard at night were the roars of the different monsters the imp had brought from wherever they were from. Manticore and basilisks fought over their piece of land and, every now and then, the cries of the ones who tried to cross the dark one’s reign echoed on the tall walls of the castle, a castle that was more another reminder of the power its inhabitant possessed than anything else.

That was the reason why, as Rumplestiskin walked down the corridors, he didn’t see anyone except his own shadow, his castle, alike his reign, only filled with the horrors he guarded.

Once he reached the throne room, which he also used as his personal lair, he waved the wand with closed eyes, nodding to himself when the object crackled and hummed, magic oozing out of it.

“Hello?” A voice broke his concentration, making him turn with a sinister smile that made the voice falter for a second. “Hi”

“Captain Hook” The dark one greeted, walking to the crystal ball in where the pirate’s features were visible, a look of disgust flashing inside the man’s pupils as he nodded, acknowledging the imp’s use of his title.

“I’ve found them” He simply stated “Bordering the fairy reigns just as you said they would”

Rumplestiskin giggled at that, Regina was certainly intelligent and that had been one of the things he had found more enthralling about her. But after years of dealing with her the psyche of the woman had turned a little bit obvious for him and it hadn’t been difficult to predict what the woman was going to do once she escaped Midas’ waters.

“We are going to need a few days to reach them though” Hook said “There is a storm approaching and we aren’t going to be able to move closer without entering in the middle of it”

“Just do the job as quick as possible” The imp said at that, narrowing his eyes that glowed darkly under the candles that lighted the room.

Hook nodded, fear lacing the words that he said to an already white ball, connection cut by the imp.

“Aye crocodile”

Turning and looking at his quarter master, Smee, he nodded, grabbing the telescope the short man offered to him.

Raising it carefully and adjusting it as best as he could he smiled when he saw the confirmation of what he had informed the dark one; _Rocinante’_ s silhouette rocking back and forth over the waves.

“Let’s go” He said, his orders being followed soon after.


	5. Red tide

Huge waves lashed against the deck of the ship, the mixed sounds of the crew screaming to each other as they tried to get hold of the ropes were enough to make Emma feel queasy. The salt burnt her throat and nose as she struggled to keep herself in the moving deck, breathing suddenly something both difficult and painful. Standing had already been proven complicated and near impossible at some points during the storm and so she set her jaw as another wave crashed against the ship, feeling lost for a second as her head swirled. Tripping, she grabbed the edge of the deck, a few splinters biting her skin as she tried to keep her hair out of her eyes, the water pouring non-stop from the pitch black clouds that covered the sky.

“The fairies must have sense us” Leroy mussed behind her back. He hated the creatures to a degree that Emma would have never think possible off. The dwarf had been looking at the coast wearily since they had started to approach it; a frown on his features as he whispered different kind of old curses that Emma had never heard being said before.

Some in the ship would refer to Leroy as the “fallen dwarf” and even if Emma didn’t know the reason of his hate against the creatures that were normally linked to the lightest of magic, she nodded. The storm was certainly too strong to not be magically fuelled. Although the reason why the fairies believed that a storm would make none other but Regina turn back was beyond her.

“Then why don’t you try to not be swiped off the deck?” Another deep voice startled both Leroy and Emma. They had been trying to hold the ropes on the prow as the rest of the crew tried to take hold on the ropes of the stern. A few of them were on the gun deck, trying to hold back the cannons as the water moved them around like some kid’s toy.

Turning, Emma’s eyes found the changing pupils of none other than Graham. The man had been pensive since a few days back, after the talk he must have had on Regina’s cabin short after Emma’s diatribe with the woman. Seeing now the man so close to her made Emma swallow, unsure of the way the man behaved near her, almost as if he was expecting something.

“Aye” Leroy replied, grumbling and grabbing the ropes more tightly. A few ropes of the shrouds at their left of the foresail were already looking seconds away of giving away and Emma jumped, leaving Leroy and Graham alone to deal with the rest.

Trying not to fall and with her boots already slipping once again she fastened the cords, coughing heavily as another wave crashed against the ship.

“We need to enter now” Graham shouted, his large hand grabbing Emma’s forearm making the blonde look at him. Leroy was already on the mizzen mast, tying up the last ropes together and shouting at them as the rest of the crew moved inward. Emma nodded once before reaching for the door that would led to the cabins of the crew, the smell of salt and sweat hitting her nose as soon as she entered.

“Looks like we are going to need to wait” Graham said, startling her. The man had entered right before her but he had been completely silent for a few seconds, making Emma forget for a second how close of her she was.

Grabbing the rattled blanket Arch handed her the blonde scrubbed her face as well as she could, the excess of water damping the blanket quickly.

“How much?” The doctor asked Graham, his forehead wrinkled due to his worry.

Graham shrugged, pointing at the place above their heads. “As you already know because of Neverland’s nightmare a few years back magic storms tend to end quite quickly once their full force is unleashed, the captain estimates than in a few more hours we would be able to find a way through it”

The crew grumbled, a few of them already seating on their bunks, whispers and murmurs filling the large cabin.

“I would want to talk with you” The quarter master said as soon as the rest of the men turned, soon forgetting their presence.

Emma sighed and shrugged, walking towards her own piece of blanket. The good doctor had provided her with one after the incident on the dragon’s nest and as she seated on it, the shirt already hanging limply from her body as she tried to dried herself as best as she was able to, she motioned Graham to do the same. She had the distinct suspicion that the man saw in her a prisoner turned a problem so when the man smiled at her and offered her a salute she blinked, slightly taken a back.

“We aren’t going to drop you off on the fairies’ reigns” He told her in a whisper, the words hitting Emma almost as strongly as the waves from minutes before.

“Why?” She asked, narrowing her eyes and trying to understand what the man was saying “But Regina…”

“The captain” The man interfered, the stern look on his eyes making Emma blush as he reminded her brunette’s title “Believed that it was better to not give you more information that the necessary until we touched the coast.”

“But” He said when Emma tried to talk once again, a humourless smile on his face “I think it’s better for you to know what she is already doing in order to keep you safe”

The princess swallowed the coldness of her body due to drying water forgotten for now. Clutching the blanket against her chest in an attempt to cover herself as much as possible she faced the man, eyeing wearily at him. Graham made her think about a particular man she had met once, the first week after her flight; terrible and with an air of ferocity hanging around of him like an especially strong stench. He wasn’t bad, only strange, and that was what looked Graham in that moment; strange. And looking like he knew something that Emma didn’t.

“Why she doesn’t want to give me to the fairies? It’s the best option”

“Not exactly” Graham replied, passing a hand through his hair, his eyes glowing for a second. “Re… The captain thinks that there are things we don’t know lurking around the ship. It’s possible that the Jolly Roger is somewhere out there, trying to catch up with us”

At the name of Hook’s ship Emma blanched; the pirate had truly left an impression on her and the idea of being so close to him was more than enough to make her worry.

“You think he is behind the gold my parents had asked” She provided, making Graham shake his head once before continuing.

“We think that there is something else but Regina doesn’t have enough material to prove it. Either way we are going to pretend that we have dropped you off and then turn around, trying to lose Hook on the bayou that surrounds a few islands near the fairy coasts.”

“And then?” Emma asked, her tangled hair framing her limpid green eyes when she looked at Graham. “Where are you going to drop me off? If you keep circling the fairy lands we are going to end up circling the enchanted forest and arriving at Rapunzel’s reigns”

“I still don’t know what kind of plan she has prepared about that” Graham said, shrugging a little, scratching his face when the blonde scoffed. “That’s something I will tell you once I know something about it”

Emma frowned at that, looking at the man in front of her not knowing what to expect from him. Or from the woman that was probably on the main cabin looking at the maps. With a sudden realization she remembered that Regina also worked behind the helm and that Bacon was inside with them, somewhere on the crew’s cabin. Images of the woman in the forecastle flooded her mind, making her exhale while trying to line up her arguments against Graham’s information.

Instead, when she turned to look at him, the only question that came out of her mouth was “Why is she helping me?”

Graham looked around, Tim averted his gaze as soon as he saw him looking at them and Emma almost smiled at the scrawny boy before looking back at the quarter master, a glow of something that Emma could only call amusement lighting his normally sombre features.

“She sees something in you” Graham told her simply. Tilting his head the werewolf narrowed his eyes before continuing. “I don’t know if that’s true but there is definitely something in you princess. Although I still don’t know what”

The blonde chewed the information as she played with the medal, the cold metal making her remember the wounds she still had open on her palms, drops of blood signalling the point where the splinters were.

“What is what she sees in me?” She insisted.

The man bit his inner cheek. The woman in front of her was nothing but a White, the spawn of the spawn who had tried to kill him and his family. What had happened on the White kingdom had been looked like torture in some circles but since the one who had perpetrated the massacre had been Leopold White, the monarch who couldn’t do anything wrong, no kingdom had tried to make him see what he had done.

And now, ages down the line, there he was, talking to a woman that according to Regina was more akin to her than anything.

“You were prophesized a great future” He finally said, a part of him doubting about the decision he was about to make “Turns out Regina also had a future prophesized years before she was born by a fairy that no longer exists”

That made Emma hum, as long as she knew fairies couldn’t die. “And?” She asked, frowning, realizing too late that Graham knew in fact a lot more about her that she had thought.

“When she needed to make a decision she said no to the dark one, changing her future and consequently breaking what had been written about her. Now she is… paying for what she did and she wants to help you to be free of what changed her.”

“Fate?”

“The dark one”

That made Emma look at the man twice, unsure if he was telling the truth. She had never seen the man, the only thing she knew about her was what everyone knew; the tales that were told to children to keep them away from uttering his name or trying to cross the borders of his kingdom.

“Why would he want me?” She asked. Graham shrugged at that, he had already told too much and didn’t want to say more than what he actually was sure about.

“That’s something I think it’s better if you don’t ask me princess. Tomorrow we will sail until we are close enough to the shoreline and from there…”

With that the man stood, crossing the cabin and opening the door. The sound of the angry wind making the rest of the crew turn and look at him for a second before he closed the door behind his back, water leaked between the planks of wood that kept them sheltered from the storm.

“Everything ok there sister?” Leroy asked with his rough voice, a pair of cards on his hands.

Nodding, Emma stood, approaching him and Marco and sitting between them. “Yup” She answered, information swirling inside her head.

_“What was all about?”_

* * *

 

_The author bit his bottom lip and shook his head as he tried to grasp his head around the information the being in front of him had just unloaded._

_“That doesn’t make any sense” He said, standing from the corner from where he had been listening to Merlin, a deep frown on his forehead. “Who was the fairy that said those things about the queen, I certainly didn’t write it”_

_“That’s because there are things than even the authors ignore about the characters they write about” The fire explained. “Things that keep the characters being them instead of a mere prolongation of the author’s will. That’s how you were defeated”_

_Being the first time he was forced to remember his current predicament made the scrawny man suck on his lips, the bitter taste of the truth making him growl ._

_“The fairy was one that the dark one killed not long after she made her prophecy. Right now, as we speak, only the fairy called Blue and him know about the truth behind the reason of why Regina was deprived from fairy god-mothers”_

_The former author played with his hands, a habit he had developed after he had accepted the quill. “Then…”_

_“Then there are things that can’t be changed, no matter how much we tried to change them” The fire said. “But the story that I’m telling you, the story that could have been, isn’t about fate but about what happens, what is already happening, when two individuals decide to not follow the paths fate has already written for them”_

_The author swallowed, walking closer towards the fire and nodding slowly at it._

_“What happened after that?” He asked tentatively._

* * *

 

Turned out that even if Graham looked like a man that one couldn’t know what he was thinking about half of the time he knew enough about magic to be right on his estimation. The following day the sun rose illuminating a limpid sky and an equal calm sea in where the waves that had been there until hours before couldn’t even exist.

The crew and the blonde princess were soon enough on the main deck, a few men already working on the things that had suffered during the storm.

“Looks like we have company” Tim said with his eyes narrowed as a voice from the crow’s nest descended over the crew’s ears.

There, in the distance, something that looked suspiciously like a ship, approached quickly at them. From the distance Emma couldn’t pin point the flags and distinctive the ship had but considering what Graham had told her the night before she gripped her own forearms in sudden disgust.

Hook was there.

Turning when she heard the rich voice of Regina coming out from the forecastle she almost nodded at her, forgetting the discrepancy they had had before the storm.

“Alright” The woman screamed at her men “We need to approach the shoreline, so stop playing and start working, understood?”

The crew replied line one man and turned, returning to their chores. Soon enough the fairy’s coasts were close enough to see the tall trees that covered the reigns almost entirely.

Magic buzzed in the air but it didn’t attack the ship, something that made Leroy growl grumpily, not trusting the fairies in the slightest.

“This is where we are going to drop you off?” Marco said, joining Emma and smiling gently at her. The blonde shrugged, not sure if she actually could share the information Graham had given to her yet.

“We will see about that” A feminine voice beat her when she tried to answer. Turning, the blonde found herself looking directly at Regina’s brown eyes, the woman wearing the black and red ensemble she had seen her wearing the first time they had seen her. “For now we need to move the ship as close as possible to that bay”

Marco nodded at that and proceeded to retire, eyeing Emma the whole time while doing it.

“Graham told me about your plan” She said, looking at Regina who merely smirked, a short nod confirming the blonde’s words. “Why?”

“There are things that need to be done sometimes” The pirate answered cryptically as she eyed the shoreline of the fairy reigns, a tilt on her head making Emma turn, curious about what the older woman could have seen.

The coast was clear but before she could look at Regina once again the brunette had moved closer to her, the scent of leather clogging Emma’s nose for a second alongside with the familiar odour that had filled the woman’s cabin days before. A mix of magic and something more.

“Graham told me that he already explained you  certain details about my reasons” She offered, her voice deep and rich on the blonde’s ear making her shiver slightly. She didn’t fear Regina but underneath the apparent calm she talked with there was something else that made her feel more nervous than before.

“Yes” She finally answered, trying to look unaffected by Regina’s proximity, circling the woman and forcing her to be the one who turned around, her green eyes noticing the way the brunette swallowed slowly under her eyes. “I still don’t understand why though”

The pirate sighed and clenched her hand around the helm of a sword. The sable glowed, this time making Emma frown a little to that, feeling suddenly her own skin buzzing for a second, as if it recognized something she didn’t.

“Come with me” The brunette offered, walking past Emma and entering on her cabin without actually waiting for the blonde. The princess growled at that, nodding to herself once before actually chasing the brunette.

Her heavy boots echoed on the room once Emma entered, finding Regina already pouring herself a drink, the myriads of objects she had on it shining a little under the sun that filtered from outside.

“I want to explain one thing to you” Regina started as Emma finally approached her, one hand on one of the multiple rafters the low ceiling had.

Nodding, the blonde waited until Regina finished her drink, a strange look on her eyes as the brunette seized her, almost as if she was asking herself about her own reasons to do what she seemed about to do.

“There are a lot of things that had been said about me” She finally started, a smirk on her lips, moist because of her drink. “That I’m a hero, scum, that I’m evil… the whole set”

Emma didn’t answer at that, knowing that it was irrefutable what Regina was saying.

“Once upon a time” The brunette started mockingly “I was born with a prewritten destiny, one that would have make me one of the most powerful witches in all the enchanted forest”

Emma’s eyes directed themselves towards the sword the brunette was still wearing but Regina shook her head dismissively. “Not like that” She offered as an explanation.

“My mother” She continued “Forced me to marry to a particular king in order to put me in a position of power, following the instructions of The Dark One. But, what neither of them expected was to me turn down the offer the imp made me days before the actual marriage took place”

“You turned down a deal” Emma repeated, linking the myths that surrounded Regina with the information she was being given.

“You could say that” The brunette said, sighing “As you already might have elucidated saying no it’s not actually something that the dark one takes very well and so he told me that refusing to follow my destiny was something that would make me worthless for my mother. I’d forced her to travel to Wonderland at that time but refusing to use magic I realized that I only could do one thing, one that didn’t involve marriage”

“What was that?”

“Flee. Fearing that I could have both been captured by my not-anymore-husband or by my mother I spent a few years on the run, deciding finally that I couldn’t keep with the farce anymore once I heard that my mother made herself queen of wonderland.”

“Your mother is the queen of hearts” Emma realized. She had heard about the ruthless woman that currently had the kingdom in an iron fist but she had never been able to see her since her parents had closed all the portals that led to that part of the enchanted forest many years ago. Tales told that the woman had almost everyone on the kingdom living without their heart, the vaults occupying almost the entire palace of the Wonderland reign.

Nodding, Regina sighed and walked towards her table, the glass thudding against it as she put it there, the dress-coat now open and letting Emma see the white blouse that was underneath it, a vacant look on her eyes.

“Exactly, that was when I reached for the dark one’s help. Assuming that he would take his end of the deal and help me in exchange. But I didn’t hold any importance for him anymore and so, as a punishment, he cursed me, making me immortal and linked to him against my will”

Emma frowned at that, the story about Regina had never involved something like a curse, nor about a contract between her and the dark one.

“Why a curse?” She asked, eliciting a deep sigh from the woman, her eyes glazing for a second, lost in something that looked like regret from where Emma was standing. Biting her lips and nodding at herself the brunette grabbed the belt that held his sword and unfastened it, leaving both the sword and the belt on top of its usual place on her table, the belt’s buckle clicking against the wood.

“There are things that I would rather forget than anything else” She finally answered after a tense silence “Things that I would have preferred to be able to not keep with me for so long”

“And having you as an immortal near him…” Emma started, realizing what the brunette was implying.

“Meant that he was both protected and had me for every whim and desire he might would have. For now I’ve been the one keeping the barriers up on his sea.”

Silence fell on the cabin as Emma digested that last piece of information. She had ever liked Regina’s story, the story of a woman that had decided to go against the dark one. She had despised the end though since Regina always ended up finally deciding to go against her will and attack ships turning herself into a pirate but her character had been decisive on how the blonde saw the world. Something that hadn’t exactly been seeing as something good from both of her parents back on the days they had tried to marry her to some noble’s son with a complicated name and even more complicated story. Knowing the truth about Regina, about why she was like that, made her also realize how much the woman was ready to give in order to make her be safe.

“That’s why you are trying to help me?” She answered, her arms crossed in front of her as she tried to understand the ramifications of what she had just been told.

Regina nodded at that, licking her lips and glancing at her through heavy eyelids. “There are a lot of things that I did back when I thought I didn't have a choice, I want at least to give you that”

Emma’s breath got caught at that affirmation, the look on Regina growing ardent as she eyed her, almost as if she was expecting Emma to do something.

“Why?” She finally asked, swallowing and noticing how her tongue felt dry against her mouth, the idea of drinking some of the liquor Regina seemed so fond of crossing her mind.

“Just because” The pirate answered, shrugging and making the already opened dress coat to open further, showing more of the rest of the older woman’s clothes. She also had the vest Emma had seen her wearing that first night and the princess remembered the way she had looked at her, a mix of surprise and interest that had made her smile and try to look as calm as possible, desiring to impress the woman that had been named “The Queen of the Dark Seas”

She was about to answer to the brunette when a scream made both of them look towards the door, sound of rustling echoing on the ship’s belly. When a second scream was heard the brunette grabbed her sword and looked through one of the portholes that helped her see the deck once she was on her cabin. The entire crew seemed to frenetically be pointing at something, a few men already dragging their swords and guns as three more rushed towards the entrance to the gun’s deck.

“Captain!” Graham’s voice preceded him before he opened the door, making Emma bolt in surprise and the quarter master to look at her strangely for a second as he picked a scent of magic that seemed to coat the air. Turning towards Regina and tilting his head towards the main deck he licked his lips, worry written all over his features. “The jolly roger is here”

* * *

 

Captain Killian “Hook” Jones wasn’t one of the most intelligent men alive and he was in fact proud of being a man of action. But, even if was considered a scum among other pirates, he hadn’t reached the place where he was by being stupid and so when he noticed the manoeuvre that the Rocinante was doing he realized that Regina was trying to lure them into a trap.

Grunting, he had called for Smee while pointing at the point where the shoreline of the fairies reigns –now at their right and dangerously close at some points- disappeared from their point of view, he didn’t need a map to realize that there was a small bay there, probably one that could be the point where Regina and her crew were trying to trap them.

“Grab the dust” He barked forcefully at Smee who nodded and rushed towards his captain’s cabin. There, between bottles of rum and ragged maps a minuscule botte of a sparkling substance waited, its power still unleashed.

When the short man returned back to his captain, breathing hard and with his big meaty left hand clasping the bottle, Hook grinned as he kept an eye on the other ship, an ugly smirk forming on his face.

“You don’t know who you are trying to trick” He muttered before looking at his second with a veracious glint on his eyes. The crocodile was going to be happy with this job and if he was happy…

Pain filled his eyes for a second as the old feelings of bitterness and regret filled his mouth, the only flavour he was capable of taste whenever he was chugging rum or grog. Grabbing the dust he unclasped it, the magic already pouring from the bottle, sparkles caressing his hand for a second as he tried to concentrate on the dust.

Myths told about the man who had been able to use the fairy dust even better than the infamous Peter Pan. Many had been the ones who had doubted that the tale could even been true since fairy magic was known to be a magic unreachable even to the Dark One. Truth was that the leathered-clothed man that stood in the deck of his ship had deciphered the way to use it. And now, as he turned and threw the sparkling bottle towards the main flag of his ship he grinned, the air around the deck already starting to change.

“Remember” He screamed at his men, many of them already prepared for the imminent attack. “We need the princess alive and keep both her and the “captain” apart from each other, understood?”

The crew nodded, a few of them snickering at the idea of finally being able to attack Regina’s ship, something that had never been done before.

“We are ready” Smee said still slightly short of breath.

Hook nodded, unsheathing his own sword in the process as the ship jumped forward, the fairy magic starting to react at the Neverland pieces of wood he had cut back on the infamous island.

“Perfect” He whispered, grinning maniacally as he prepared himself for what was going to repay his debt with the Dark One.

He was ready.

* * *

 

By the time Regina, Emma and Graham appeared on deck the Jolly Roger was less than two cable’s length away and Hook’s face was already visible from the main deck were the majority of the brunette’s crew were already readying themselves for the battle. Emma could distinguish August, the man nodding at Regina who nodded back. The dark haired man run towards the gun’s deck, disappearing as fast as Emma had seen him.

“How…?”She started. Before she could finish Graham was already growling at her side, his teeth glinting as he spoke with his eyes completely focused on the other’s ship deck.

“Magic, they probably expected a trap”

Regina, standing as tall as she was at the other side of Emma nodded, her eyes narrowed as she glanced at the image she had in front of her.

“Or that they knew exactly where to search” She deadpanned, a glow already lighting the blade of her sword which she unsheathed without looking twice at Emma. “How good are you with a sword princess?”

The question was said with the tiniest of smiles and for a second the blonde blushed, remembering again the fight that she had had with Regina days before.

“Emma?” Regina’s voice sounded softer this time and when the blonde looked at her a reassuring smile shone for a second on the other woman’s eyes, a nod making Emma sigh and relax her stance a little.

“Good enough to be a problem for them” She managed to answer, a broader smile crossing Regina’s features before her eyes went to Graham who nodded and positioned himself in front of Emma.

“Don’t leave his side” The brunette instructed Emma.

With a nod Graham looked at Emma and motioned towards the inwards of the ship as Regina moved closer to the deck’s edge barking orders as the Jolly Roger kept approaching at them, the helmsman of the _Rocinante_   turning the ship as quick as possible while the riggings creaked due to the sudden change of wind. Drops of salted water splashed against the two boats, the distance between them shortening quickly.

Emma glanced at Regina, the woman fastening the last buttons of her dress coat and tightening her grip on her sword’s helm who practically disappeared in her grip, her eyes focused solely on Hook, the male pirate grinning darkly.

“The magic in the sword helps her to regenerate” Graham said, his voice more than a growl than anything else. “She will be fine”

Looking at him practically speechless Emma tried to defend herself but failed, the quarter master already motioning her to follow him.

The blonde run inwards, were the cabin for the crew was alongside with a few chests in where the seamen had their swords, looking briefly at a few of them Graham handed Emma the one they had taken from Hook back on Dragon’s nest.

“Careful” He said, nodding at the blonde when she grabbed it. The blade wasn’t as good as the ones she had been practicing back on the castle and weight seemed off for her now that she really looked at it but she nodded, trying to feel more confident than what she really felt.

“Don’t worry” Graham told her as he grabbed a short dagger, the helm intricate enough to cover his knuckles as he closed his hand around it. “Hook'smen aren’t exactly known for their prowess on battle”

Meanwhile, as the first cannons started to cover the water with powder and pieces of wood Hook was climbing to one of the shrouds, readying himself for the impending crash.

“Give me the princess!” He screamed, eyeing at Regina who shook her head, her cry the signal for her men to start the second round of fire.

It was the second time she defended Emma and a part of her wondered how many times she would probably be willing to help her.  Setting her mind and frowning when she felt a sudden wave of nausea washing over her she moved forward when the crash made the two ships tremble, the movement making a few men of Hook’s crew slip and fall from the Jolly Roger, screams filling the air almost at the same time Hook jumped, his sword preceding him.

In the dark castle Rumplestiskin smirked with his pointy teeth, dark red magic swirling around him like a second skin as the hold the heir of the white kingdom had had on Regina’s disappeared little by little.

The dark one tilted his head as the feeling of Emma’s magic touched his mind for a second, the feeling much more powerful that what he would have expected. “Even with your broken destiny you are going to definitely be useful dear” He thought darkly as miles away the battle continued, the first drops of blood staining the deck.

Emma gritted her teeth together as another pirate approached both Graham and her. The main part of Hook’s crew was already taken care of but a few men were still attacking. Tim had completely disappeared at that point of the battle and Emma wondered for a second where the young boy could be. Turning and dodging another attack she strained her eyes, trying to see were Regina was, the woman’s short tresses and dress coat visible on the forecastle where the dark clothed Hook was attacking her relentlessly, making her move around, the two of them on the bridge, the man’s back against the helm as he tried to defend himself.

The brunette’s nausea however, was still strong and as she closed her eyes, dizziness clouding them, she felt another pull inside of her. Frowning, she recognized the pull of what she was; she was being summoned.

This time, instead of being able to fight against the sickness as usual, she felt magic coming out of her, dark red clouds covering her form. Tripling, she lost conscience and around her everything turned a deep shade of red, nothingness circling her as the ship’s deck disappeared below her feet.

Once she opened her eyes she found herself in a bid room, a large table at her right where a man seated, looking eagerly at her. The place was filled with books and objects, no different from what Regina herself had on her own cabin. Seemed that with immortality came the necessity of keep everything and with her hand still on her sword Regina turned to look at the man, brown eyes glowing.

“What kind of play are you trying to win imp?”

The dark one smirked, standing and bowing in front of Regina, a mocking look making the brunette’s glare grew stronger.

“How is that you think that I’m playing my dear?” He asked, feigning innocence.

Regina didn’t bother with that, knowing far too well the man that was now eyeing her like a vendor trying to estimate the value of an object.

“You have never summoned me like this” She finally said, lowering her sword but still pointing with it at the man’s body. “Why now?”

The dark one raised his hands, his skin sparkling slightly under the candles that illuminated the room.

“Why not now?” He defended himself “It looked like you were in a complicated predicament after all”

The brunette growled at that, a flick of worry showing on her eyes. She knew that Graham could take care of Hook without problem but being in front of the man made her feel restless as well as the idea that Emma could be on the imp’s plans in some kind of way.

“What do you want?” She finally asked, making Rumple nod and clap, almost as if Regina had just given him the best of gifts.

“You have something that I want” He finally said, closing the gap between the woman and herself, a predatory smile on his lips. “And we both know that I’m being kind enough asking for it”

Regina looked at the man straight on his eyes, dreed swirling inside of her. She had been right after all.

“You see” The man continued, a predatory smirk on his lips “There are a lot of things that you and the princess share as you probably have realized by now”

Tightening her grip on the sword the woman moved at her right, focusing on the man in front of her who hoped at his left, maintaining the eye-contact as she nodded slowly. “Yes”

The answer was more muttered than said and only elicited another giggle from the imp.

“I need her” He stated simply “And I’m grateful for you to have been keeping an eye on her until now”

Regina’s lip twisted in disgust, anger already threatening to spill from her mouth as she tried to not lounge at the imp, remembering the last time she had tried to do so.

“No” She finally answered, a mix of fear an excitement washing over her, filling her as she took a step towards the imp, her the edge of her sword now pointing at the floor of the palace.

The dark one arched an eyebrow, anger appearing between the smirk still present on his lips. “No?” He asked.

“No” Regina repeated, nodding once. Her hand were now inches away from the large table in the middle of the room, the dark one looked at her once, one of his hands raising in the air, a tendril  of his signature dark red magic dancing between his fingers.

“I think” He stated, talking too sweetly on Regina’s opinion “You are under the impression that you can decide wheatear you obey me or not”

The brunette swallowed, memories of her mother, of what she had needed to endure back on the days she had been a child echoing on her mind, the marks and wounds the woman had inflicted burning with a phantom feeling as she stood, proud, in front of the short man.

“My deal” She started “stipulates that I need to be sure that the borders are sealed, I don’t own you anything else”

The imp moved his index finger, mocking Regina’s stance by imitating it. “No my dear, you own me your life and I think you have started to forget the day you arrived here, entering with your clothes in tatters, asking for help when your mother’s men tried to grab you and send you to Wonderland. I think you have started to forget how I defended you, how I was the only one who believed in you”

His voice, full of mirth at first, transformed into a metallic cackle that made the brunette cringe, despair starting to make her feel weak, used, like when she had been used back on the days when she had still been able to live thinking that true love existed.

“I own you child” Rumplestiskin continued “No matter how much you think you don’t. I want Emma White, heir of the white kingdom, and you are going to give her to me and if you don’t…” He added, moving closer, a glint of danger on his strange eyes “You will be imprisoned for all of your eternal life, as long as I live, understood?”

The brunette swallowed back the tears of terror that threated to spill. She had been called ruthless; her story being told and twisted until everything that had survived had been little of the brunette’s real self. And although she had feared for her life back in the days where she had been close to become the kind of woman her mother had wanted the worst thing Rumplestiskin could ever do was taking away the freedom she had managed to achieve, for little and tied to the man she had in front of her at that moment that it was.

She thought about Emma though, the way the blonde had escaped her own kingdom, walking and not looking back, trying her best to not be sent back there once again, learning as much as she could and with the constant risk of being recognized and used. For whatever reason the blonde had ended up on her ship, her story so much alike Regina’s that Graham had sensed the link long before Regina had known about the young woman’s story.

“You won’t do that” She finally stated, rising her chin and angling her sable at the smirking man that blinked, suddenly at loss. “Because if you could make Emma fall in your claws you would already have used that option, you felt her when she crossed the border, I know that you did a deal with her mother, you probably has a whole destiny waiting for her and yet you are here, talking with me, trying to make me betray her trust because you can’t make her fall into one of your traps. You won’t hurt me, Rumplestiskin, because you can’t”

As she spoke Regina found newfound confidence on her, a kind of strength she had been feigning for a long time but that now seemed to be there for her, strong and winning against the old fears she had suffered since the moment she had pushed her mother and decided to fled the white kingdom, afraid of Leopold and her mother’s eventual punishment.

“I won’t help you” She repeated “No matter what”

The man lowered his hands, the glint on his pupils never fading away as he moved closer, the odour of his magic circling Regina as he did.

“If you don’t give me the heir in less than 24 hours from now” He stated “I will prove how wrong you are by thinking you can win me, dearie. And, after that, you will be the one asking for forgiveness”

The brunette raised her sword, years of practice making the move swift and easy as she tried to look as threatening as she wanted. “I won’t give her to you”

The man tilted his head, his mouth hanging open as something flashed in front of his eyes, a blurry form growing on the back of his reptilian eyes for a second before disappearing completely.

“But you will, dearie, you will”

And, with that last cryptic message, he raised his hands, magic engulfing Regina, smoke clouding her figure as the imp transported back where she had come from.

As soon as that happened the man turned, opening the large gates of his study with a gleeful tune following him, he had a lot that needed to do.

* * *

 

_The author exhaled when the fire stopped, he had been too close from Rumplestiskin many times for his liking and although he didn’t consider himself stupid the imp had managed to trick him too many times to be comfortable whenever his presence was addressed._

_“And then?” He asked, the fire being crackling in something that looked almost like a chuckle._

_“Then the inevitable happened”_

* * *

 

When Regina felt the cloud starting to disappear she found herself back on her ship, her feet firmly settled on the bridge, just in front of the helm like she had been before The dark one intervened.

The sea, however, didn’t look like it had looked before and while Hook’s ship had been too close from their own now the other pirate’s ship wasn’t visible. The same happened with the clouds of powder that had hung over the water, the blood coating the planks slowly being washed away by a few dutifully men.

“Happy to see you here again captain” A voice said at her right. The woman turned, startled, only to find herself in front of Graham who, with a deep gash on his arm, stood smiling at her. At his side Arch did her best to patch him up as best as he was able to, a deep frown on his features. “When you disappeared I thought that it could be a trap but then the stench of magic arrived and I thought that it was better if we just waited”

“And Hook?” She asked, tilting her head in direction of where the other man had been minutes before. The fairy coast was still close but the position of the sun was different and she could feel a slight change of the breeze; they had definitely moved, even if it was only a little.

“After you disappeared it almost looked like he decided to retreat” Another voice said. “Screaming something about how he was finally free” Emma was standing at Regina’s back and when the older woman turned she shrugged, still holding her sword, cuts and bruises here and there. Half of the camisole she had been wearing stained with blood and for a second Regina squinted her eyes, worried that the princess could be hurt.

“Tim was wounded” Emma explained as she saw the look of worry on Regina’s eyes. “When you disappeared Graham went for Hook and I searched him, Leroy was already with him but…”

“She carried him to the crew’s cabins” Arch said, a proud smile shining on his pale features. The man nodded at Regina and tapped Graham’s shoulder. Apparently the man had been on the helm until Regina’s apparition. “There I also have Bacon and a Lilith, nothing too serious though. Tim being the youngest had more problems to keep himself awake but Emma helped me once the battle ended”

At that information Regina eyed the green-eyed woman who blushed and shrugged, questions still filling her pupils. With a nod the doctor descended the bridge and walked towards the entrance that would led her to the belly of the ship, his hands stained with Graham’s blood who was already grabbing the helm once again.

“We barely needed a few more minutes to make Hook flee” He stated.

“That was because I have the suspicion that Hook is working with the imp” Regina replied, forgetting for a second that Emma was also present. Seathing her sword she rubbed her temples, her fingers disappearing on her short tresses as she did so. “Who, by the way, is actually trying to get a hold on…”

A cough from Graham and a pointed look made Regina look at Emma, the blonde staring at her completely pale at that moment.

“Emma…” Regina started, not knowing exactly what to say; she had always exchanged her opinion with Graham whenever she thought it was necessary and certainly Rumplestiskin’s plans were something that needed to be discussed. Blaming her state of mind to the fact that she had let herself talk in front of Emma the brunette pirate swallowed; unsure of what to say.

“What does he want?” The question was made quickly, the accent of the blonde woman thickening for a second as she stood in front of Regina, never taking away her eyes from her. Noticing that she hadn’t any other option the brunette looked at Graham, who shrugged, not wanting to say something in front of Regina nor Emma considering the situation.

“He wanted a deal” She finally answered not wanting to give anymore explanations on the forecastle where everyone listening could hear them. Emma, however, didn’t look prone to stay silent and the glint on her eyes was enough for making Regina swallow, realizing that she couldn’t exactly negate any more information to the blonde, not when her future was what Rumplestiskin desired.

“The dark one has always been too fond of deals” Graham commented, glancing at Regina once as he kept manoeuvring, an apologetic smile on his face when the captain of the ship looked at him warningly. “You know is true”

Regina nodded, unable to say no to that affirmation. “He wants you” She finally admitted, focusing her eyes on the blonde’s, Graham’s deep sigh framing her words. The werewolf had definitely called for it long ago and a part of Regina wanted to look at him and smack his head but refrained. “The dormant power that you possess is like a flame for him, his deal involves your own life”

“In exchange of what?” Emma asked.

“That’s unimportant” Regina replied, unable to lie. “I’ve a day before I’m summoned again”

Emma took a step towards Regina, one of her arms raised, unable to stop herself, rage and fear mixing together behind her eyes. The brunette, however, shook her head forcefully “I had said that I won’t take the deal”

With that she turned, leaving the bridge and entering inside her cabin, the door closed tightly behind of them.

“You really should go to talk to her” Graham offered “Without Bacon we are without our helmsman so I can’t move from here so it should be you”

“And say what?” The princess asked, a note of tiredness on her voice “She had told “no” two times to the dark one, what I can tell her for that?”

“How you feel?” The man hinted, making Emma sigh and walk towards Regina’s cabin. The sky was clouded and the breeze was starting to transform into a powerful wind, the night would probably be complicated once again but Graham didn’t say anything, motioning Emma to the cabin, making the woman to finally touch the door, unsure of what to do.

Finally opening the door Emma entered, Regina already seated on the little bed on one side of the cabin, tokens of her travels littering the place. Emma hadn’t seen the bed until now, as preoccupied as she had been the times she had talked with Regina there, it was obviously a spot that the brunette didn’t really used.

“You can’t be summoned again without me” She stated firmly as Regina turned, looking at her with an eyebrow raised, the dress coat and the blade haphazardly lying on top of her desk. The tall boots, dark trousers and white camisole ensemble made Emma stop for a second, licking her lips as she noticed the way the brunette’s eyes seemed completely focused on her, waiting for an explanation. “You already said no to the dark one once” She continued, moving closer to Regina. “And you know better than anyone how that worked out”

Regina stood, as tall as she was her eyes dark, cruel even, and for a second Emma saw in the woman the same one she had met back on the dark one’s borders.

“Have you forgotten that I’m letting you be here?” The woman asked, taking a step closer towards Emma, her words slicing the blonde’s body, hurting for a second as Emma took them and tried to defend herself against them “It’s my decision to make princess, not yours”

“Then what’s the prize?” Emma asked, being her the one this time who took a step closer, the ship kept moving under their boots and she could hear the rustle of the waves at the other side of the ship, the smell of the ocean seeming to surround her as Regina raised her chin, her eyes flashing, a mix of anger and fear clouding them. “You told me that you gave up your freedom that you didn’t want to make me be the one who lost that again, so what’s the prize Regina?”

 Regina didn’t answer at first, even though she suspected the blonde already had an inkling of what that prize was.

 “He wants you in exchange of my contract” She finally admitted.


	6. Brinicle

Emma didn’t say anything at that, a deep sigh echoing the walls of the cabin for a second. The green eyes of the princess focused on Regina’s though, after the brunette started to think that it was already too late.

“I’m not going to give you to him” She said, crossing her arms and trying to look like the powerful pirate she had been for years. She didn’t feel powerful in that moment and that was obvious in the way her senses seem to be completely allured by the other woman’s presence.

“Why?” Emma asked, eyeing her, her eyes making Regina need to swallow a few times, a tired smile appearing on her face when the blonde continued “It’s the easiest way and you would be free.”

“But I don’t want to condemn you” Regina replied, her voice almost like a plea. She had never plead, not since Daniel, not since the imp and his damned deal but she didn’t look away when Emma stared at her, taunting her in one single tilt of her head.

And maybe because of that, or because the sea outside was roaring and the two of them were sure that they were going to finally be uninterrupted, that Emma closed the distance between the two of them until she was close enough for her clothes to brush against Regina’s, her eyes falling for a second to the older woman’s lips.

Regina felt her heart beating crazily inside her chest, something she had started to think that had been a mirage back when she had been younger, Daniel still alive.

“Why?” Emma asked, her voice deeper, softer, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth, looking painfully delectable from where Regina was looking.

And maybe it was only craziness or the fact that Regina had probably signed her death sentence only because she was unable to turn her back to the blonde princess but in the moment Emma seemed to sway on her feet, seconds away of taking a step backwards, Regina grabbed her cheeks and looked at her as gently as possible, silently asking for permission of something that Emma gave her with a mere nod and a whimper that Regina quickly swallowed with her own lips.

Soon enough the only thing that filled the room were the moans of the two women, Emma quickly biting Regina’s lips, dragging her teeth along the soft lips, her tongue easing the sudden pain the brunette felt.

“More” The brunette pleaded, her hands already caressing Emma’s body, wanting to take the shirt she wore and pin her down on the walls of the cabin. She had spent years without even asking herself the possibility of having someone else, Daniel already a fading memory. She hadn’t been prepared.

However, as Emma started to bit down her neck, her hands also seeming to roam free along every inch of Regina’s upper body, she smiled, feeling the weight on her shoulders starting to ease up.

 _“Thank you”_  She thought before being the one who trapped the blonde’s pink lips between her teeth, her chuckle being soon enough sequestered on the younger woman’s throat as she kissed her again.

Fumbling long fingers started to ease up the cords that kept her vest on its place, the buttons that hold up her blouse also being attacked by the quick hands of Emma as Regina herself tug the shirt of the blonde until the princess nodded, moving slightly away and eyeing the bed behind Regina hungrily.

“I want… “The blonde started, looking shyly at Regina before swallowing, taking a deep breath as her hair started to escape from her ponytail, Regina’s hands keeping touching her forearms, a smirk present on her lips. “Do you want it too?”

The wording, and the way it was said, made Regina bit her lips, wanting to kiss the blonde senseless as she forgot the last bit of her inhibitions.

“Yes” She whispered, doubt clouding her mind a second later. “But I don’t know how to…”

“I think we will figure it out” Emma replied back, a devilish smile on her features as she started to unbutton the last bits of cords and buttons that hold both the brunette’s vest and blouse until the woman stood in front of her, the fabric of the blouse covering her breasts, only showing the path between them. Emma promptly caressed that patch of skin, her long fingers painting impossible figures on it.

Groaning, and already forgetting any doubt she could have had until now, Regina attacked the other woman’s shirt, making Emma to rise up her arms for a second as she took the shirt from her, hunger filling brown eyes as she was presented with Emma’s own skin. She was slightly tanned and the pirate found herself licking her lips, aching to be able to taste every inch of the blonde’s body.

Next, as Emma returned to her caresses, Regina’s nipples grazing the interior of her blouse as she was mercilessly teased, the brunette tried to unfasten the pantaloons the other woman wore, her hands almost faltering when Emma lunged at her, making her fall on top of her bed where various objects from it fell from it as many others ended up on her back.

Wincing a little she rose, her lips searching instinctively Emma’s pulse point on her neck and sucking on it as her hands kept working the blonde’s midriff, the younger woman’s hands caressing and teasing, her index and thumb pinching her nipples as her blouse glided off her shoulder, leaving them naked and free for Emma to start kissing them as soon as Regina let her own neck free with a whimper.

Growling, the blonde let Regina turn her around, this time more objects falling to the ground and letting her touch the blanket behind her fingers as Regina kneeled in the border of the bed, taking with her her pantaloons and leaving her completely naked except her boots.

“You are way to undressed” Emma protested, her hands on Regina’s blouse and vest, helping her to get rid of them when the brunette moved closer to the blonde, trying to kiss her once again.

“You know what you can do” Regina replied, all of her insecurities disappearing as the sea kept roaring at the other side of the wooden planks, a satisfied smile appearing on her lips when Emma turned her around and, doing the same move she had done on her seconds before, unfastened the her breeches.

Taking with them Regina’s boots and also unfastening her own Emma finally laid on top of Regina, both of them moaning at the contact and laughing when, in her haste, their teeth collided, the sudden pain making her suck on them for a second before trying it once again. This time kissing each other slightly slower, their hands roaming freely.

When Regina encountered the first scar Emma had she felt the blonde froze. It was obvious the wound had been made years ago and so she didn’t ask, knowing that she would have already been sporting a few on her own if it hadn’t been for the magic of the sable. Shaking her head she smiled at the younger woman, gently kissing her and making the other woman to keep up with what they both had been doing.

The bed size was definitely one of the things that made everything a little bit difficult as the slowly started to move, Emma first, Regina second, trying to taste as much of the other as possible. The brunette grinded against Emma, clutching the blankets, once she finally moved on top of the blonde, one of her hands going quickly towards the nape of the younger woman, interlacing her fingers with the hair of the princess, moving Emma’s head as close as her as possible as she heard moans growing on intensity, her body starting to be covered on sweat.

They didn’t talk much, maybe because they didn’t exactly know what to say, but as Emma’s hands started to roam, grabbing her breasts and deliciously applying pressure on her nipples, Regina found that she didn’t care, didn’t need the words. Moans and names where heard through the cabin though and Emma laughed a bit when Regina’s hand also descended after a few minutes of nothing, short nails caressing her neck, making Emma arch it- smile promptly forgotten-as Regina remained on top of her, straddling her.

Finally looking at the blonde through her bangs, Regina smiled lopsidedly once, her hands raking through the other woman skin, leaving white lines behind her fingers as she painted on the other woman’s body, slowly. Neither of them paid any attention to the roaring sea as they kissed repeatedly, her hands acting on instinct, caressing each other sexes. It was blunt at first, filled with hisses and doubts and more pleas that what Regina would have ever thought possible but as they both came, weak at first and as they repeated stronger and stronger in time she let herself go in Emma’s embrace opening herself to the blonde who kissed her and with her mouth stained of her sex at one point of the night smirked, murmuring her name like a promise.

* * *

 

Regina opened her eyes, the first rays of sun making the bottles made of magic glass she had managed to grab back on a little village near the Midas reigns glow under it. A tender smile appeared on her face as she looked at the sleeping form of Emma, the blonde’s tresses creating a halo around her naked form, a relaxed appearance replacing the stubbornness looks she was used to. Letting out a breathless chuckle Regina caressed the blonde’s shoulder, a kiss on it making the younger woman murmur and move a little, but never stirring.

 _“You are unique Emma”_ She thought, looking at the princess, the marks she had seen earlier now visible under the lights of morning. The pale skin of Emma did nothing to hide them but now, asleep, she didn’t try to cover them. Splayed on her back, snuggling the covers, she looked much more like the woman she probably would have been in another realm, in another kind of story.

Wearing only the penchant she had seen on her every day since she had been on her ship the blonde whispered something, turning towards her and snuggling against her, her warm skin making Regina relax a little as well, ready to forget everything else except Emma’s body.

Unfortunately as soon as she closed her eyes she felt a pull, something soft but still present, tugging her insides.

“Rumplestiskin”

She couldn’t know for sure how much time had already passed but she couldn’t have that much before the dark one called for her. Swallowing and glancing down at Emma she sighed, knowing that she wasn’t going to make the blonde take the deal.

“Wonder what he is going to make me do this time” She thought as she kissed the blonde’s lips, sitting up and grabbing her clothes as swiftly as she could. As she buttoned up her leather vest, the cords and buttons seeming more complicated than ever under her fumbling digits, she glanced back at the sleeping woman.

Biting her bottom lip she realized that she couldn’t wake Emma, the woman wasn’t going to let her go alone, and certainly she couldn’t take the risk of presenting herself and Emma in front of the imp.

Grabbing her sword she glanced at it, remembering the time Rumplestiskin himself had given her the blade, and telling her that she would be free, immortal. It had looked like a good deal back on that time, the only deal she could take.

She had thought differently through the years and a part of her exhaled as she felt again the pull inside of her; it seemed that it was time after all.

With her sword on her left hand she turned just being able to see Emma beginning to stir as dark red smoke circled her, leaving her blind as magic transported her back to the castle, her grip on the blade never fading away.

It was time after all.

* * *

 

Emma opened her eyes, a strange glow still present on the air as she did so. Frowning, she moved her hand, trying to reach for Regina, a smile tugging the corners of her lips, memories of what had happened the night before filling her mind. The cold sheets and a few objects that had been there the night before was the only thing she found though and, blinking, she tried to focus on the spot at her right, the emptiness of the other side of the bed the only thing that looked back at her.

“Regina?” She asked tentatively, expecting the woman to appear any minute now. The brunette was known for being an early raiser between her crew after all but after minutes of waiting the woman stood, unable to be there anymore. Grabbing her clothes and stomping her feet trying to fit them on the tight boots she wore Emma opened the door of the cabin, looking back and forth for a second before walking towards the door that led to the bridge of the ship, the blue sky of the fairy reigns the only thing she saw at first.

Bacon’s voice however, was what made Emma look at him, her searching eyes focusing for a second on the short man who had part of his face covered in some sort of ointment- Arch’s work no doubt-

“Have you seen Re… the captain?” She asked, trying not to sound as worried as she was. The man looked at the door from where she had exited before looking back at her, his little dark eyes glinting before he shook his head, the answer implicit on the way he kept looking at her.

“Graham is on the crew’s cabins though” He finally said, pointing at the door that was on the forecastle of the other side of the ship, a few men already working on the ship, voices and songs rising from the deck. “Maybe he knows where she is”

Emma nodded at that as she descended the stairs, crossing the deck and barely looking at Marco when the man tried to stop her. Muttering a quick sorry she entered on the crew’s cabin seeing Arch’s back first and Graham’s worried face second. The two of them were looking at Tim, the boy as pale as ever.

“I’ve tried to do something for his wounds” Arch was saying in worried shushes “But I don’t think…”

Graham shake his head when he sensed Emma’s presence, his eyes glowing under the poor lightening of the interior of the ship when she raised his head, his pupils meeting with Emma who looked at him, the name of Regina falling from her lips rushed.

“She isn’t with you?” Graham asked, taking a step towards her as Arch turned to tend Tim’s wounds, the boy whimpering slightly as he touched him.

“No” Emma said, a frown on her forehead. “You think that…”

The man growled, walking past Emma and exiting the deck, men turning their backs at him for a second as Emma rushed behind her.

“I thought that you would make her think twice about all of this” The man said, turning towards Emma and pinching the bridge of his nose. The woman shrugged, noticing for the first time that her hair was still out of the normal ponytail she wore. Grabbing the leather strip she always had around her wrist she fastened one as she walked behind Graham, the man already walking towards the cabin’s chamber where everything was as she had left it, the bed unmade, objects on the floor and the same scent the blonde had felt back when she had woken up.

“Magic” The man said, sniffing the air and growling slightly. He had long ago learnt the difference between magic users, at least between The dark one and the common mage he had come across during his time as a fugitive. “The imp had summoned her”

“But a day hadn’t passed yet” The blonde protested making Graham scowl at that.

“It’s not like the imp is known by playing fair, even with his deals you never know what to expect”

Swallowing, Emma approached the desk, not knowing what to do.

“She was summoned” She finally said as her eyes landed on the maps scattered all over the table. “Where?”

Graham shook his head as he walked towards her, pointing at some place on the dark one’s shoreline. “We would need weeks to arrive there” He said dismissively.

“But the dark one isn’t going to be exactly happy when he sees that I’m not there with her” Emma protested.

Graham opened his mouth, ready to say something, when his eyes landed on the globe behind Regina’s desk, the needle on top of it making him remember the amount of times he had seen Regina using the spell.

“There is a way to make us be there on time” He said smiling triumphantly. The blonde followed her eyes, frowning when she saw the globe, the map written there without any kind of names or seas pictured in it.

“That?” She asked, dubious.

Graham nodded frenetically. “I can’t make it work because I’m a werewolf and therefore I don’t have any kind of magic ability, but you…” He turned and eyed Emma “You have been near Regina, with Regina, your essence must be mixed with hers right now”

Blushing slightly at the implications of what the man was saying Emma needed a few seconds before realize what the man was saying to her.

“That… map is enchanted?” She asked, pointing at it. The mystery of how Regina managed to move her ship had been always deeply guarded so she eyed the object, not sure if she could trust it.

“Regina would point out where she needed to go and her blood did the rest” Graham said, pointing at the needle “The dark one gave it to her alongside with her sword the day they signed the deal”

Emma swallowed, still unsure “But my blood isn’t magic, as much as I’ve Regina’s…. essence or whatever you want to call it” She protested.

Graham sighed, the woman in front of her had a scent of magic around her, almost dormant but strong enough to make his senses tingle.

“Emma, without you Regina is going to probably spend the rest of her immortal life in some place far away from us” He finally said, focusing solely on the blonde “And you want to save her because you wouldn’t have come to me or try to understand her”

Emma’s tongue grazed her teeth, she knew she wanted to help Regina but she had been taught against magic, had learnt to hate it because it had been magic the one who had written her destiny, had been magic the one who had told her parents that she wasn’t going to be the daughter they had expected. Magic always came with a prize and she wasn’t sure of what her prize would be.

But, she realized, Regina probably hadn’t know either and yet she had let Rumplestiskin summon her, call her, without Emma at her side, without her end of the deal after years of doing the imp’s whims.

Biting her bottom lip she nodded at Graham, the man smiling at her for a second before rushing outside and coming back in less than a minute with Hook’s sword and one of Regina’s bluish coats.

“Better if you go with some kind of protection” The man told her as Emma fastened up the belt around her midriff. The coat didn’t look on her as well as Regina’s but the thick material made her feel more secure than with only the camisole she had been wearing until now. Taking a deep breath and with the sword already on her right hand she circled the desk and raised her left index finger, her breath getting caught on her throat.

“Rumplestiskin” She said for good measure, remembering the times she had been told to not muster that name in any way or form.

* * *

 

The imp eyeing the woman in the middle of the poor lighted room of her castle tilted his head and smirked, the brunette’s sword lying already on the floor, one trickle of blood already falling from the left corner of her lips. She still stood though, proud and ready to keep battling against the man.

Giggling, the dark one turned, eyeing the potions he had put on a circle, magic coming out of them every now and then, the shimmer of power making his own powers react when he approached, a maniac gleam visible on his face when he looked at the brunette again, his feral aspect making Regina swallow in disgust. Leaving the dagger he had been using on top of the table he sighed theatrically.

“Seems that I was right my dear” He said, rising one hand where a dark red cloud was already forming “You’ve brought our little princess to me”

* * *

 

Emma felt the ship move under her feet, the light outside the windows the cabin had changing as well as the colour of the water that was visible through them.

Before she could turn towards Graham and ask for an explanation her body was circled by a dark cloud and every contact with reality disappeared.

* * *

 

Regina tried to lunge against the dark one but the man was quicker, teleporting himself a few metres away, the brunette turning just in time to see Emma appearing in the middle of the room, the sword on her hand and a frightened look that turned resolute when she saw the smirking being in front of her.

“You have the option of turn away and never come back dearie” He said looking at Regina, coldness on his eyes. “And it’s your only option”

“How about not?” The blonde said before Regina could ever say anything to defend herself. The blonde’s eyes were focused on the imp’s features, fear on them but her grasp on the sword as steady as Regina had seen when they had fought on the deck of the Rocinante.

Taking a step forward Emma tried to attack, her sword ending up on the floor seconds after when Rumplestiskin moved his hands, magic crackling against her skin.

“I wasn’t talking with you dearie” Regina eyed Emma, the way her shoulders were positioned, her green eyes focused solely on Rumplestiskin and shaking her head she took a step forwards, meeting Rumplestiskin’s eyes.

“I won’t turn back” She stated “You have been my owner for far too long Rumple, I don’t take the deal”

The man hummed at that. Approaching Regina and leaving the blonde behind him he raised one of his hands, touching Regina’s skin with his fingers, looking at her balefully.

“You’ve outlived your purpose” He sleazily said, his eyes never leaving Regina’s “I will talk with you after I finish with our beloved heir, if you are alive of course”

And with that he clapped his hands, Regina disappeared on a beam of dark red light as Emma lunged forward, trying to attack Rumplestiskin. The imp, however, wasn’t there when she managed to grab tone of the swords that still lay on the floor, her fingers scrapping against the wooden floor as she fell due to the unbalanced movement she’d made.

“Here dearie”

The voice was cold and unbecoming and when Emma finally saw where the man was she realized that she couldn’t move her arms, magical ropes tying her up and making her drop the sword, the clacking sound of the blade against the floor for a second time making her swallow, worry lacing her words as she, strained, tried to talk with the man in front of her.

“Where is Regina?”

The dark one giggled at that making her float in the air, the constrictive ropes biting her skin as he directed her to the middle of the circle he had earlier created with his potions.

“Seeing how much she can take of my creations before I make her ask for forgiveness”

* * *

 

Regina still remembered the coldness of Rumplestiskin’s reign back in the day she had crossed the frontier, trying to make the man take her in when her mother’s men had started to search for her. The dark one’s reign wasn’t exactly a place in where anyone could live and as she had walked through the middle of the enchanted forest sounds of animals she hadn’t seen before had followed her, the grunts and growls following her until she had reached Rumplestiskin’s castle. She had always had the suspicion that Rumplestiskin had let her pass knowing beforehand that she was going to ask for refuge.

Now, as the dark magic of the man dissipated and she found herself in the middle of the forest that surrounded the castle she had the confirmation about it.

In the distance she could hear the growl of something close to a manticore, the howling sound of something else answering to it. She had always left the men that survived the attack to their own devices thousands of times knowing that there was a very low probability for them to survive. Apparently that was the game Rumplestiskin wanted to play with her.

Her right hand went automatically to her hip where her sable normally hung, this time; however, she only found the empty scabbard of the sword.

“Damn” She muttered, licking the side of her lips where the cackled blood circled her mouth. She needed to return to Emma’s side though and so she started moving, trying to follow her instincts and searching for any signs of creatures that could already been expecting her.

Not that she was actually lucky on that regard… since she found herself soon enough trying to outrun a sphinx while searching for the path that led to the castle.

The whistle of an arrow ploughing through the air was what Regina heard as the creature readied itself to attack her. Steeling herself for the next trap Rumple probably had readied for her she turned, trying to see something between the trees as the spinx run away, darkness swallowing its pained growls.

When a second growl was heard she settled her jaw, she could see the castle’s profile at her right, the place probably less than ten minutes away but still too far to be able to escape the teeth and claws of whatever that was about to attack her.

The bushes moved in front of her, the dim light making almost impossible for her to distinguish anything except was looked to be something close to a human form.

“Graham?” She asked, doubtfully, the man’s eyes glowing in the dark as he finally took the last steps until he was close enough for Regina to recognize him.

The tall man smiled at that, at his side appearing August and Marco, the three of them holding different weapons as the later eyed the vegetation wearily.

“The princess brought the entire ship with her” The man said with a smile “But she disappeared too quickly for me to be able to think a plan”

“Arch is with Tim in Rocinante, the rest didn’t want to cross the forest” The taciturn August informed handing Regina one of the swords he had attached to his hip.

“Understandable” Marco muttered squinting his eyes.

“We were going to try to enter the castle but I caught the scent of the dark one’s magic around the castle and we went to investigate” Graham added, his eyes still looking at something that Regina couldn’t see on the dimly light of the forest.

Regina licked her lips as she tried to weight of the sword; it was lighter than what she was used to but the weight between the helm and the blade was good enough. “Emma is still inside” She said, not taking into account the amused glare that Graham sent in her direction when she said the blonde’s name.

“Let’s go then” August replied shrugging “I don’t really want to turn right now after what we’ve been through”

Rolling her eyes a little Graham nodded towards both Marco and August, Regina already turning and starting to walk in the direction where the castle’s silhouette was visible.

“This isn’t going to end up well” The werewolf thought as he rushed towards Regina, looking for any kind of danger using his senses. Regina’s eyes kept trained on the castle though, a frown on her eyes as she walked the sword August had given her already hoisted at her side.

“Captain” He started carefully.

“Not now Graham” The woman replied “The castle is mostly empty, the complicated part is to actually arrive there but the imp would be worried with Emma so I doubt he will be keeping an eye on us”

“Then what do you suggest?” Marco asked, the bow on his hand as he walked quickly, never leaving the narrow path both Regina and Graham were opening as they walked. August scoffed from behind but kept silent, his eyes trained on the forest they were leaving behind.

“I’ve a plan” Regina replied, grinning. The error everyone around her had kept making had been thinking that she wasn’t as intelligent as them. Her mother, Leopold, even the little Snow White. Rumplestiskin wasn’t an exception. “But I will be the one entering in the throne room” She said succinctly “I need to be the one who confronts the damned imp”


	7. Maelstorm

Emma fought against the magical restraints, the invisible ropes leaving red indentations on her wrists. Regina’s coat helped a little to have a barrier between them and her own body but the constrictiveness of the magic made too difficult for her to breathe properly. Gasping, she glanced around. The room she had briefly seen when she had appeared on the room minutes before was even worse lighted than earlier; thick curtains blocked the little light that illuminated the reign as the flickering flames of the candles looked about to die.

Rumplestiskin had disappeared as soon as he had positioned her in the middle of the circle he had created, magic seeming to touch her in the process.

“What do you want to do?” She barked down when the door of the room opened again, showing the silhouette of the dark one as he entered in the room, a book on his hands.

The imp moved forward, his reptilian eyes shrinking as the poor light of the room touched him.

“I’m known for always honouring the contracts I create” He started, a smirk on his lips, his pointy teeth opening wounds on his gums. “But stories, dearie, as you probably have realized, aren’t always as truthful as we think they are”

Emma didn’t answer to that, unable to say anything else except whimper as the ropes kept tightening around her.

“I’ve been waiting for years to being able to open a path to a world without magic” Rumplestiskin continued “I should have been able to do it years ago, with our mutual friend’s help but Regina decided to change her destiny and” He said “Consequently yours too”

Emma blinked at that, trying to understand what the dark one was saying.

“When Regina refused to take my deal” The man started, opening the book he had on his hands and searching for a page “She became free of the destiny that fate had prewritten for her and so she didn’t make necessary your existence, your fate then was vaporized”

“But” The man looked at her condescendingly “You are still a very powerful source of white magic, probably the most powerful the enchanted forest has ever encountered and when your mother retreated from the deal we were making I realized that I needed to wait in order to be close enough of you to use your magic. So I waited”

“Of course it wasn’t exactly easy” The imp added, the candles that had been dying slowly growing stronger under his commands. “But I expected you, and when you finally entered on my waters I thought the waiting was over… until Regina intervened of course. And after that your combined powers were strong enough to make me unable to summon her or you. I needed you to come to me”

“And that’s why you made Hook attack us” Emma managed to said, her eyes searching for anything she could use against the man. Her sword was too far away from her but the at her right, in the long polished table the man had been using as a place where he could mix his potions and strange objects in order to create the spell he was trying to, a dagger shimmered under the lights of the candles. The blade was made in zigzag, a strange gleam on the handle and for a second Emma believed that was almost calling for her.

“You wanted to make us think in him and in the attack to be able to summon Regina” She continued, trying to make the man in front of her distracted enough to be able to try to reach the table. The ropes were tight but she tried nonetheless, pushing and biting the interior of her cheek as she strained her muscles.

“Exactly” The dark one provided “But I still needed you want to see me in order to be able to call you, I knew that Regina would have never given you to me so I forced the situation”

Chuckling a little the man tilted his head at one side, his digits entwined in front of him in a fake expression of utter delight as the book floated in front of him. “It’s quite interesting to see the future” He confided “And the futures that could have been real. What Regina would never know is that she actually managed to free herself for a future, that’s the main problem of you two”

Emma frowned again, the information she was receiving making her dizzy “What… what do you mean?” She asked.

“Well” The imp said as if it was obvious “You keep fighting against fate, no matter the reality you are in, it’s quite interesting to witness it”

“And Regina?” Emma asked, the muscles on her neck straining against her skin as she turned her neck, trying to follow the man when he circled her.

“Regina would probably die since she doesn’t have with her the sword that guarantees her immortality” The man informed her off-handily “As I said I don’t need her anymore, your inherent magic would open the portal long enough for me to jump at the other side”

* * *

 

Regina looked at both August and Graham, Marco still being in the main entrance of the castle, keeping an eye on the gates.

As predicted entering the castle had been quite easy and although a few traps had been waiting for them without the dark one actively searching for them it had been quite easy to sneak past those. August was holding his broken arm though as Regina swallowed, focusing on the closed door of the throne room. Behind the closed doors she could distinguish the shimmering lights of the candles and something that made Graham growl when he perceived it. Magic.

“Wait for us here” She instructed “Don’t enter”

The two men nodded and walked away to the two ends of the corridor, guarding them just in case the imp had some kind of trap already waiting for them. Regina took a deep breath and opened the door as slowly as possible.

The large room was dimly lighted except the far end of it where all the flames of the candles danced merrily under Rumplestiskin’s voice. The man was chanting something as Emma, firmly tied up magically on the centre of the circle he had created, stood there, unable to say something. Their eyes meet though and Emma barely nodded at her, happiness lighting her pupils after that when she saw Regina completely unmarred.

The pirate smiled at her, rising the sword August had given her, carefully walking towards the back of the imp who kept chanting, the words strange to both women. Regina could understand the idiom though, remembering the time she had spent trying to understand as best as she could the limits of the contract Rumplestiskin had made her sign and the amount of magic the man could inflict on her. The words,even if she could understand the cadence, were elvish,  a forgotten idiom that she couldn't understand so she merely elevated her arms, trying to angle her whole body as best as she could while Emma kept looking at her, fear evident on her eyes.

The scream that pierced the room when Regina’s sword descended was enough for both Regina and Emma to jump- at least the former one- and as the dark one turned, the wound already healing on his neck, the magic that had been sustaining Emma disappeared, her body falling to the floor as she tried to regain her breath while the imp looked viciously at the brunette pirate, pure rage glowing on his eyes.

“I thought” He started “That I had made my intentions clear dearie”

Regina stood and attacked for a second time, trying to reach the dark one. The sword grazed the vest of the man but the dark one was faster and as he slowly regained control of his powers he lunched forward, snatching the sword from the brunette’s grasp and raising it over his head, rage still coming out of him like a river.

As the glimpse of the sword began its descend Emma stood, looking around her, trying to see any way she could help Regina, seeing the dagger on the table she grabbed it, throwing herself forward and stabbing the man blindly on his back, dark blood starting to spill as soon as she did it, staining her hands and Regina’s coat.

The dark one fell to his knees, his face contorted as he tried to remain awake, the sword falling to his lap when his arms gave away. Regina looked at Emma in that moment as the magic coating the place started to grow thinner, a vortex of wind and sparks illuminating their faces.

“You don’t know what you have done” The imp, whose skin seemed to be turning paler with every second that passed, said, a blood-stained smirk appearing on his face. 

And so, the name of the dagger changed, a gasp escaping Regina's lips when she saw the name of Emma written on the blade as Rumplestiskin finally closed his eyes, magic finally leaving her body and letting him rest.

* * *

 

_The author looked horrified at the fire that fell silent, the cave suddenly feeling extremely cold as the last bits of the story disappeared, words and images dissolving under the man’s eyes._

_“This means that the saviour keeps turning the dark one” He stated “No matter how many times I interfered on the story”_

_The fire grew stronger; the last image of the dagger glowing between the hands of a teary eyed Emma still visible._

_“This means that they will defeat fate no matter how many times you try to make them act like you want. This means, former author, that it doesn’t matter how many times you try to make them do the things you want. Story will always return to its course and they” It added, almost on an afterthought “Will always keep trying and doing what they need to do in order to keep each other’s safe”_

_With those last words the cave’s lights disappeared, only Merlin’s fire the thing that kept illuminating the place._

_“Goodbye Author”_

_And, with those finals words the scrawny man found himself alone in a total darkness, the distant voice of someone calling his name._

_He had finally understood it though; the dagger, Emma’s name on it, the prize that she seemed to always been ready to pay. There were threads that couldn’t be sunk, only submerged until they resurfaced away._

_Merlin smiled from inside of the magical fire, knowing that another chapter was already beginning somewhere else, Camelot expecting his magic. It was only a question of time when the rest of the threads would appear again. Or the rest of the story was written._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And… the end! Thank you so much for reading, as you probably have imagined the story can have a sequel so maybe I start writing one alongside with my other stories (and a few backstories I didn’t manage to fit in the final edition of the story about other characters) so I hope to see you all soon!


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